Heritage Oil down on Iraq delays

Heritage Oil has been hit by delays to its operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, as it has been forced to create a sidetrack well on its Miran West-3 well.

The well found no measurable flow of hydrocarbons at the Lower Cretaceous level although Heritage believes that existing data and observations made during the dig confirm the area is gas bearing.

Below the Lower Cretaceous reservoir the well encountered a high pressure interval as well as a loss of circulation requiring a change in well design and the well being sidetracked.

Start your trial of MoneyWeek today

Get unparalleled financial insight, analysis and expert opinion you can profit from.

Start your trial

Sign up for MoneyWeek’s free twice-daily newsletter.

Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.

Join more than 165,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with latest financial news, insights and expert analysis to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.

Sign up

Tony Buckingham, Heritage's Chief Executive Officer, said: "The degree of fracturing and high pressure encountered in these deeper intervals have meant that the drilling programme is taking longer than expected".

Delays are one of the main destroyers of value in the oil and gas sector, as Heritage found out in the aftermath of the announcement; by 08:47 the stock was down 2.7%. Over the last 12 months Heritage Oil shares have fallen 37%.

BS