Sterling to drill Black Sea wells offshore Romania

May 31, 2012
A unit of Sterling Resources Ltd., Calgary, let a contract to Grup Servicii Petroliere SA to drill two exploratory wells in the Black Sea offshore Romania.

A unit of Sterling Resources Ltd., Calgary, let a contract to Grup Servicii Petroliere SA to drill two exploratory wells in the Black Sea offshore Romania.

A group led by Midia Resources SRL will drill the Ioana well in Block XV Midia and the Eugenia well in Block XIII Pelican using the GSP Jupiter cantilever jack up. The first well is to spud in mid to late September upon completion of a program for TPAO offshore Turkey.

The program calls for the drilling of Ioana in 93 m of water to target the Mid-Pontian sandstone to an anticipated total depth of 1,600 m. Eugenia, in 55 m of water to the north, will target three formations of Oligocene, Eocene, and Late Cretaceous age to 2,300 m.

Sterling is the operator of both blocks with a 65% working interest.

Meanwhile, following the discovery of gas by Exxon-OMV Petrom with the Domino-1 well 35 km southeast of the Midia block, Sterling has identified and evaluated the Anca, Maria, and Nadia prospects in 100-120 m of water that are believed to be in similar formations to the Domino-1 discovery. In addition the Paula and Voinicul updip prospects have been mapped in the shallow water part of the Midia block.

A new oil prospect, Irina, has been mapped in the Pelican block on trend with the Eugenia prospect.