TransAtlantic to explore for Jurassic gas onshore Bulgaria

Oct. 1, 2013
A unit of TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd., Dallas, expects to spud Deventci-R2, a planned 14,500-ft directional exploratory well in northwestern Bulgaria, in October.

A unit of TransAtlantic Petroleum Ltd., Dallas, expects to spud Deventci-R2, a planned 14,500-ft directional exploratory well in northwestern Bulgaria, in October.

The well targets gas in the Dolni Lukovit zone of Jurassic age. In August, TransAtlantic and private Koynare Development Ltd. signed a farmout under which KDL will fund 75% of TransAtlantic’s initial $40 million work program. The funds will be used by TransAtlantic Worldwide Ltd.’s subsidiary and operator, Direct Petroleum Bulgaria EOOD.

Direct Bulgaria, which remains operator, formerly held 100% of the Koynare concession, having been awarded the tract in November 2012 as the first onshore production concession awarded in recent Bulgarian history. Direct Bulgaria was also to assign a 50% interest in its ownership of the Stefanetz concession just south of Koynare pending government approval of the application.

The 35-year Koynare concession contains the Deventci-R1 well, where Direct Petroleum Bulgaria discovered a reservoir in the Jurassic Ozirovo formation at 13,800 ft in 2008. TransAtlantic acquired Direct Petroleum Bulgaria in 2011, and the Deventci-R1 well flowed 3.1 MMcfd of gas on limited test in 2012.

TransAtlantic noted that while Bulgaria’s parliament has enacted legislation to ban hydraulic fracture stimulation in Bulgaria, it has clarified that conventional drilling and completion activities are not intended to be affected by the law.