Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Chevron 'Fesses Up: It Completed Block 1 Well A Month Ago

A press release from Chevron has revealed what the world's press revealed weeks ago.

Chevron has completed drilling its Obo-1 Well in Block 1 of the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone and is evaluating the results.

The news, if it may be called that, indicates that Chevron is going to proceed on the public relations front very, very slowly. So far, it has been content to leak the news that it released today to media outlets at least a month ahead of time.

The news seemed to have little impact on share price; the stock closed regular trading down $0.0055 at $0.8945, but two blocks of 50,000 shares each traded two minutes after the session at $0.885, down a cent and a half.

ERHC On The Move reported the results from this well - "Big Oil," we said - on Feb. 14, about 48 days after drilling started in December.

Here is the formal press release:

Exploratory Well Completed On Nigeria, Sao Tome JDZ Block

LAGOS (Dow Jones)--Drilling of the first exploration well in the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Zone's Block 1 has been completed, Chevron Corp. (CVX), operator of the block, announced Tuesday.

A statement by Chevron said the exploratory drilling was completed March 15, 2006. It said the Obo-1 well is located in 1,720 meters of water, while the drilling operation was completed in 63 days.

Other interest owners of the block are Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria-Sao Tome (One) Ltd., an unit of ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM), and Dangote Energy Equity Resources.

The statement said the results from the drilling of the Obo-1 well are currently under review by Chevron and its partners to determine the next steps in the group's exploration program.

The block is approximately 300 kilometers north of the city of Sao Tome and approximately 200 kilometers from the city of Port Harcourt in Nigeria.

Chevron JDZ Ltd. has a 51% equity share in the block while Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria-Sao Tome, and Dangote have 40% and 9% equity,
respectively.


-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires, +234 1 585 0849; vinwanma@beta.linkserve.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08:13 041106


Hard on the heels of this free non-news came the same non-news from UpstreamOnline, for $750 a year:

Chevron keeps mum over Obo-1

By Upstream staff

US supermajor Chevron has finished drilling Obo-1 wildcat, in Block 1 of the joint development zone jointly administered by Nigeria and Sao Tome, but the results of the well are under review, the company said today.

Chevron did not reveal whether the probe, sunk in 1720 metres of water, hit oil, revealing only that the well was completed on 15 March after 63 days.

The results from the drilling of the Obo-1 well are currently under review by Chevron and its partners to determine the next steps in our exploration program," the company said in a statement.

The well is the first to be drilled in the highly prospective deep water area of the Gulf of Guinea.

Chevron has operates Block 1 with a 51% stake, ExxonMobil has 40%, with local partner Dangote Energy Equity Resources holding the remainder.


11 April 2006 11:08 GMT | last

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