Sudan & Arakis: Talisman yesterday announced Q3 results
Sudan: (excerpt from the press release)
On October 8, Talisman completed the acquisition of Arakis Energy Corporation, indirectly acquiring a 25% interest in an oil exploration and development project in Sudan. Under terms of the transaction Arakis shareholders were issued one Talisman share for every 10 Arakis shares, with a total of 8.9 million Talisman shares issued. Based on Talisman's share price at the time of the transaction, the purchase price for Arakis was approximately $285 million.
The Company acquired 68 mmbls of proved and 45 mmbls of probable reserves at a cost of less than $3.00/bbl. Recent drilling results indicate that current proved and probable reserves are approaching 150 mmbls net to Talisman.
The contract area which covers Blocks 1, 2 and 4 is located 450 miles southwest of Khartoum and comprised of approximately three million acres net to Talisman. To date, five oil fields have been discovered and are under development.
With the start of the rainy season in late May, third quarter drilling efforts focused on development and appraisal wells in and around the Heglig and Unity Development Blocks. The four drilling rigs on the concession completed 15 successful wells, comprised of 12 development wells, two appraisal wells and one exploration well. To the end of September, there have been a total of 100 successful oil wells drilled on the concession. Six wells commenced drilling in October.
For the current exploration drilling season (expected to start in December) a total of nine exploration wildcat wells and five contingent wells are planned. At the same time a major seismic program is planned to mature numerous leads.
During the third quarter, equipment was delivered to Sudan for construction of the field production facilities. Field facilities and production equipment will be installed during the dry season which started in October. More than 680 kms of pipe have been welded of a 1,500 km pipeline from the concession to a marine terminal at Port Sudan. First production is expected to start in late 1999 at 150,000 bbls/d (37,500 bbls/d net to Talisman).
Talisman's complete press release:
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