Tethys Petroleum has revealed a resource report which its management have described as “transformational” in its significance, and which raises its energy resource base in Tajikistan to 27.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
The overwhelming majority of the resource is made up of natural gas, which the report estimates at a gross unrisked mean recoverable prospective resources of 114 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, equivalent to 19 billion barrels of oil.
The gross unrisked mean recoverable prospective resources of oil and condensate represent the remaining 8.5 billion barrels of resources.
The company’s Tajikistan assets cover an area of approximately 35,000 square kilometers. The upgrade has been based on new seismic data, gravity data acquisition and interpretation and well data. The resource report was prepared by Gustavson Associates of the United States.
“This hugely significant increase in our estimated resources in Tajikistan transforms our prospective resource base,” said Dr. David Robson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tethys.
“I believe that these unrisked mean prospective resources are significantly greater than the estimated remaining reserves and unrisked resources in the UK North Sea(1). Geological and geophysical work undertaken has shown that Tethys is operating in a world class basin with enormous and untapped potential.”
He added: “The deep prospects being pursued in Tajikistan have ”super-giant” potential and any exploration success will be transformational for the Company. These additional seismic data will help to identify the location of the first deep, sub-salt well drilled in Tajikistan targeting extremely large prospective resources.”
The company has said the final stage of the seismic programme in Tajikistan will commence this summer with equipment having been mobilized and initial interpreted results expected in Q4 2012. Once complete, this interpreted seismic will help identify the location of the first deep well to be drilled by Tethys.
The initial analysis of the data from the aerial graviometry survey completed at the end of 2011 revealed several attractive prospective areas with the potential presence of very large deep sub-salt and sub-thrust prospects within the Bokhtar Production Sharing Contract (“PSC”) Area. The additional seismic about to be acquired will target these areas and provide the final data in a comprehensive programme to optimally locate a deep well.
This final stage of the seismic programme will involve the acquisition of new seismic in two areas; the Vaksh valley and the Dushanbe Step. The programme has been designed to target these areas as the graviometry survey and other data have identified them to be the most likely to contain large deep prospects including potential Jurassic reefs located on the edge of likely Permian basement high features. Jurassic reefs form some of the most prolific fields in the Amu Darya basin (of which the Bokhtar PSC area forms part) and no wells have ever been drilled through the overlying salt layer in Tajikistan to date. This basin is extremely prolific containing oil, gas and condensate fields and indeed some of the world”s largest gas fields are located in this basin. These data also reveal significant potential in other parts of the PSC Area, including the Kulob area, however it has been decided to focus on the Vaksh valley and the Dushanbe Step initially.
It is expected that this new seismic programme will further confirm the high potential in the Tethys PSC acreage. Tethys now owns an 85% interest in the Bokhtar PSC following the recent acquisition of an additional 34% interest from its partner in the project.
