Gulfsands Petroleum has weathered the recent sanctions against the Syrian to make an important discovery in the country.
The Syrian government has instructed Gulfsands to reduce production
again sharply, with gross production for October averaging 6,028
barrels of oil per day (bpd) and for November averaging 4,862
bpd.
Sanctions have also affected payments, with Gulfsands taking a
payment of $11.4 million ($5.7 million for Gulfsands' account) in
late November in partial settlement of oil sales invoiced for the
months of August and September, when Gulfsands are owed $23.2
million.
Gulfsands's CEO Mahdi Sajjad has strongly criticised the decision to impose sanctions on Syria's oil exports.
"If I could find an angle to sue the British government and the
European Union, I would do it. Sanctions do not work - look at
Iran, look at Iraq," Sajjad told Reuters.
Payments for October are outstanding. "No payment of outstanding
amounts is expected in the forseeable future," said the
company.
Exploration activity has continued, which Gulfsands says "are not
restricted by the recent introduction of additional EU sanctions on
oil production. The company has concluded exploratory drilling at
its Al Khairat-1 well ("AKR-1") with the discovery of 1,826 bpd at
a depth of 1,975 metres.
"Subsequent evaluation of wireline logs has indicated that a 29
metre net oil column has been encountered in AKR-1 with
net-to-gross of 100%, average porosity of 21% and average water
saturation of 19%.
Based on wireline and testing data, no
oil-water contact has been identified in the well," Gulsands said
in a statement yesterday.
"The resource potential of Al Khairat is typical of near-field
satellite closures in the area and could yield 4 million barrels of
recoverable oil volumes in the median (P50) case to 15 million
barrels in an upside (P10) case."
Gulfsands was forced to invoke force majeure against General
Petroleum Company of Syria after the state-owned firm was
blacklisted under an ongoing EU sanctions regime. The company has
now suspended its share buyback program.
