Santa Catalina Acquires Interest in Major Oil Exploration Concession in Algeria
Tuesday October 26, 10:22 am Eastern Time
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- Santa Catalina Mining Corp., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Santa Catalina L.H. Lundin (Algeria) Limited (``SLM Algeria') , is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to acquire from Arco Ghadames Inc. (``ARCO') an interest in the Hassi Bir Rekaiz oil concession onshore Algeria. Please see attached map.
The Hassi Bir Rekaiz oil concession covers 788,000 acres in the northern portion of the prolific Ghadames basin in northern Algeria where major oil reserves in excess of 4 billion barrels have recently been discovered by Agip, Burlington, Cepsa, BHP and also Anadarko, whose El Merk North discovery is reported to contain over 1 billion barrels of oil in place. The flow rate on their discovery well was in excess of 21,000 barrels per day.
ARCO is the operator of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz block and has previously acquired extensive seismic coverage and drilled two wells, one of which was a discovery flowing in excess of 1,800 barrels per day. The next well to be drilled, Semhari East #1, will be drilled 10 kilometres updip from this discovery, testing a large structure, and is expected to spud by the end of November. Estimated target depth is between 3,600 to 3,800 metres and will take approximately 90 days to drill. A second well, Sahara Mehadjer #1, will follow.
Algeria is an OPEC member country and currently produces approximately 1.4 million barrels per day of light, high quality crude oil. Excellent infrastructure is in place including excess pipeline capacity within 65 kilometres. Several major nearby development projects are underway.
SLM Algeria is acquiring a 25% interest in the Hassi Bir Rekaiz concession from ARCO. ARCO, as operator, has a 50% interest and Turkish Petroleum has the remaining 25%.
The transfer and assignment of the 25% interest to SLM Algeria is subject to the consent and approval of the Algerian government and Sonatrach (Algerian national oil company).
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Lukas H. Lundin, President
NOTE: Location map available by contacting the company at the number listed in the contact information.
Contact:
Santa Catalina Mining Corp. Sophia Shane Corporate Development (604) 689-7842
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