Amerisur Resources reveals 'technical setbacks' at Platanillo well

Lower than expected initial oil production rates at Amerisur Resources' Platanillo-9 well in South America were disclosed in a trading update published by the company on Tuesday morning.

The AIM-listed oil and gas production outfit, which focuses on South America, provided a detailed update on its operations in Colombia.

The company said that Platanillo-9, the fourth well in its planned campaign of eight wells in the Platanillo field owned 100% by Amerisur, was successfully drilled to a total depth of 8,689ft.

The well was perforated and produced up to 440 barrels of oil per day while choked back in natural flow with 60psi well-head pressure, significantly below expectations, the company said.

Investigative pressure testing found that the completion packer, a piece of equipment, had failed with respect to pressure integrity. The failed unit was pulled and a replacement hydraulic packer was run and set.

The well was subsequently placed on production, and the group said it is currently producing approximately 730 bopd with a down hole jet pump, taking current controlled production for the field to approximately 4,300 bopd.

However, the well has been damaged by the failure of the original packer and requires a corrective chemical stimulation using a Coiled Tubing Unit.

Dr John Wardle, Chief Executive Officer of Ameriseur Resources, commented: "We are pleased to report further progress towards realising the potential of our acreage. While the technical setbacks in the completion of Platanillo-9 are disappointing, the reservoir quality is high and our structure is developing faithfully to the seismic model, which augurs very well for the future field development."

He added: "Our focus is to create value in all of our assets within the field, as well as to access high value acreage in the same setting. The re-entry of Platanillo-1 is particularly important, since it will add much information about the field, thus assisting us to define ever more closely the ultimate potential of the accumulation."

The price of Ameriseur Resources shares was down 6.29% to 41p at 11:27 on Tuesday morning.

MF