Midia Resources has contracted a cantilever-type jack-up drilling rig from Romania’s GSP for the drilling of two back-to-back wells in the Midia and Pelican blocks in the Black Sea, the Canadian company said in a statement.
Drilling of the two wells, dubbed Ioana and Eugenia, respectively, is scheduled to start mid-September.
“Success at Ioana could greatly enhance Sterling’s goal to establish a more substantial gas hub in the Midia block that already includes the Ana and Doina discoveries. Eugenia, on the other hand, represents the first exploration well to be drilled in the Pelican block,” said Mark Beacom, Sterling’s Vice President and General Manager for Romania.
Sterling is the operator of the Midia and Pelican blocks in offshore Romania and holds a 65% working interest. In late 2011, the company announced it could invest between $500 million and $1 billion in the two blocks in the short run.
The Calgary-based company said it has identified and evaluated additional prospects in the two offshore blocks. Three prospects in the Midia block, some 35 kilometers from the joint Domino-1 well developed by Romanian leading oil company OMV Petrom and US ExxonMobil, are believed to be in similar formation to the Domino-1 well, Sterling said.
“These additional resource numbers in the Midia block demonstrate the exciting potential of this part of our concession,” said John Rapach, Chief Operating Officer of Sterling.
Sterling Resources Ltd. is a Canadian-listed international oil and gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta with assets in the United Kingdom, Romania, France and the Netherlands.