Ishai licensee Israel Opportunity Energy Resources LP (TASE: ISOP.L) today notified the TASE that the drilling of the exploratory Aphrodite 2 exploratory well in the license, one of the five Pelagic licenses, began on Friday morning.
The Ishai license is the northernmost Pelagic license, located northwest of Leviathan and adjacent to Cyprus's Block 12 (Aphrodite), where 17 and 7 trillion cubic meters (TCF) of gas have been discovered, respectively.
The well, 160 kilometers northwest of Haifa, and which will cost $103 million to drill, is targeting Oligocene and Miocene strata at a depth of 6,000 meters (including the water depth of 1,700 meters). Drilling is scheduled to take 87 days.
Israel Opportunity owns 10% of the five Pelagic licenses, Benny Steinmetz's Nammax Oil and Gas Ltd. owns 42.5% and two companies owned by Teddy Sagi, Frendum Investments Ltd. and Daden Investment Ltd. own 33.5%, and 9%, respectively, and well operator AGR Petroleum Services Holdings AS of Norway owns 5%. Noble Corporation's (NYSE: NB) Homer Ferrington rig, is drilling the Aphrodite 2 well, after drilling the dry holes at the Myra and Sarah wells.
The Ishai, the first of the five Pelagic licenses to be drilled, has an estimated 3.7 TCF of natural gas with a 76.7% geological chance of success. The five Pelagic licenses - Aditya, Ishai, Lela, Yahav, and Yoad - cover 500,000 acres.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 4, 2012
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