Aurelian shares fall on un-commercial well

Aurelian Oil and Gas saw its share price fall after reporting that the topmost section of the Horodnic-1 appraisal well is likely to be un-commercial.

The well, which has reached a total depth of 1,660 metres, had elevated gas readings which were restricted to the topmost section, which indicates that the interval is likely to be un-commercial.

Wireline logging has been completed and the well is currently being plugged and abandoned.

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However, the firm was keen to emphasise that the well has encountered additional, well-developed, sands near the total depth point which form a target reservoir in a separate structure which is currently being evaluated using seismic data already acquired in 2011.

This information will be used by the partner group to help de-risk the drilling of the next well in the appraisal of the Voitinel trend, which is planned for the second half of 2012.

The total expected cost of the well is forecast to be €2.5m compared to an agreed approval for expenditure of €3.5m, with Aurelian's share of the total cost expected to be around €0.84m.

Chief Executive Rowen Bainbridge said: "Whilst the primary objective section in Horodnic-1 was encountered, it is disappointing that it does not appear to contain commercial quantities of gas.

"That said, this low cost commitment well has significantly increased our understanding of the Voitinel trend and also provided interesting reservoir indicators of a separate structure, that we are currently assessing using seismic acquired earlier in the year."

The share price fell 9.62% to 23.5p by 13:14.

NR