Tirana, April 3 (AENews) – At the end of March Bankers Petroleum Ltd. announced approval of its Patos Marinza Oilfield Plan of Development. The announcement was made during a press conference in Tirana together with Albpetrol Sh.A ("Albpetrol"), National Petroleum Agency of Albania, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Energy of Albania.

This approval allows Bankers through it’s wholly owned subsidiary Saxon International Energy Ltd. ("Saxon") to take-over the remaining wells in the field on a defined basis consistent with the Plan of Development ("PoD") and produce and sell oil under Albpetrol’s existing license for a period of 25 years with an option to extend at the Company’s election for further five year increments.

The Plan of Development includes taking over consolidated areas of wells from Albpetrol and redeveloping between 80 and 120 wells each year for the first four years along with the necessary infrastructure to attain gross oil production between 10,000 and 15,000 bopd. Total development costs are anticipated to range between US$155-213 million.

The Patos Marinza oilfield is estimated to contain some 1.96 billion barrels of original oil in place with current recovery being approximately 6%. The development could potentially recover an additional 99.7 million barrels of gross oil, based on estimated proved and probable gross reserves referred to in the Evaluation of Reserves prepared as at December 31, 2005, by the Company’s independent qualified reserves evaluator, APA Petroleum Engineering Inc., pursuant to National Instrument 51-101 ("NI 51-101"). This equates to approximately 4-6% incremental recovery, based on primary heavy oil production techniques.

The 2006 work program and budget forecasts taking over between 80 – 110 wells on a US$31 million capital expenditure program with a production target of approximately 3,800 barrels of oil per day by year end.

Richard Wadsworth, President of Bankers Petroleum Ltd., commenting on the approval of Plan of Development said "This approval is a significant milestone for the Company and Albania, and now allows the Company to execute it’s Plan of Development and follow up on the Company’s belief that Albania fulfills an element of its strategy of focusing on unconventional resource type plays with the opportunity for long term production, reserves and cash flow growth".

Source: Bankers Petroleum release

Posted by on Apr 3 2006. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry