Black Gold Again
On March 17, the Korean Natural Oil Corporation (KNOC, President Seo Munkyu) announced that the company has successfully discovered a crude oil well that can produce 4,320 barrels/day in the Banan formation at Hawler Oil Rig in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Banan-1, the fourth probe at Hawler Rig which was responsible for making the discovery, began drilling last September. It drilled down to 4,000 meters, its maximum depth, in January, and successfully produced 4,320 barrels a day during its Drill Stem Test (DST).
The Banan Discovery is the fourth after the first success of a large scale oil discovery by the DD-2 oil probe in the Demir Dagh formation in March 2013. The second one was found in the Ain Al Safra formation in October in 2013, and the third in the Zey Gawra formation in November 2013, fulfilling the expectations of the Kurdistani business venture.
The oil reserves in the Banan formation will be evaluated by a test probe drill in 2014, and KNOC succeeded in producing 3,500 barrels a day of medium quality oil from the Cretaceous period formation of the Mesozoic Era, through drilling by the first probe, the Demir Dagh-4.
Currently, KNOC has three probing operations under way including Hawler Oil Rig and Sangaw South Oil Rig, and is scheduled to launch the second probe drill at Sangaw South Oil Rig within the first half of the year.