Baron Oil reveals plans for Chuditch appraisal well

(Sharecast News) - Baron Oil announced further details on the planned Chuditch-2 appraisal well in the Chuditch gas field on Wednesday, on the TL-SO-19-16 production sharing contract offshore Timor-Leste. The AIM-traded firm said the selected drilling site for the well would be 4.8 kilometres from the initial Chuditch-1 discovery well - a substantial step-out underscoring both the expansive size of the gas field and Baron Oil's confidence in the reprocessed seismic datasets.

It said the new well would target a gas column of over 100 metres, significantly surpassing the 30-metre column discovered at Chuditch-1 in 1998.

It was expected to use a simple vertical well design facilitated by improved subsurface imaging derived from reprocessed 3D seismic data, ensuring operational simplicity and cost-efficiency.

Expected to be drilled in late 2024, contingent on securing drill financing, the Chuditch-2 appraisal well would use a jack-up drilling rig, with the drilling operation projected to span 21 days and an additional 15 days allocated for logging and a drill stem test.

The well would explore a water depth of 60 metres and drill down to 3,020 metres below mean sea level.

"In relation to drilling planning, Baron has recruited a well operations manager and scheduled planning workshops with government regulator ANP and joint venture partner TIMOR GAP," the board explained.

"Baron is also in discussions with other regional operators to identify potential logistical and operational cost-saving synergies, and has submitted first phase documentation to ANP for environmental permits."

At 1414 BST, shares in Baron Oil were up 2.3% at 0.08p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.