October 24 (SeeNews) - Oil and gas exploration company Serinus Energy said on Thursday it will start drilling the Moftinu -1004 well in Romania's Satu Mare in the first quarter of 2020, after it has been granted a 12-month extension on the third exploration phase of the Satu Mare concession.
The Moftinu-1004 well is already permitted and construction of surface facilities needed to drill this well is underway, Serinus said in a statement.
Once successfully completed and tied-in, the Moftinu-1004 well will provide additional gas production to the Moftinu Gas Plant.
Given the grant of the 12-month extension, the company anticipates that the seismic acquisition programme will now commence in the second quarter of 2020 when there will be more favourable weather and ground conditions in which to perform the survey.
The company applied to Romania's National Agency of Mineral Resources for the extension in order to allow sufficient time to complete the seismic programme and fulfil all commitments for this phase. The current phase will now expire on October 28, 2020.
Moftinu-1004 is anticipated to be a production well located within the Moftinu field and drilled to a depth of approximately 1,000 m.
The Moftinu gas field, discovered by Serinus in 2014, is the catalyst for future, self-funded, growth in the Satu Mare concession, according to the company. Satu Mare is a 729,000 acre exploration block which is 60% owned and operated by Winstar Satu Mare SRL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Serinus.
Serinus is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Tunisia and Romania. The common shares of the company are traded on the stock exchanges in Warsaw and Toronto.