Operational Update – Completion of drilling in KUN-201 and commencement of drilling KUN-202 in Mengo-Kundji-Bindi, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)

Panoro Energy ASA ("PEN", OSE ticker code), the independent oil and gas company with assets in West Africa and Brazil is pleased to announce the completion of drilling operations in the KUN-201 well and the commencement of drilling in the KUN-202 well in Mengo-Kundji-Bindi ("MKB").

The KUN-201 well was the first of up to six wells to be drilled in this new drilling campaign. The well was directionally drilled to a location 1.3 km NNW of the Kundji-200 drilling platform and encountered the top reservoir of the Kundji field on prognosis at 1,900 meters measured depth (1,301 meters vertical depth). The well was drilled to a final depth of 2,214 meters measured depth before running logs and a installing a 7” casing across the reservoir. The logs confirm that the reservoir is oil-saturated over a gross vertical interval of 183m and that no water has been encountered in the well. These results compare to gross reservoir interval of 131m encountered in KUN-1, 182m encountered in the KUN-2, 135m in KUN-4bis, and 142m encountered in KUN-5 and is thus at the upper end of expectations. Drilling operations were completed around 6 days ahead of plan.

Following completion of these drilling operations the rig was skidded to the second drilling slot to spud the KUN-202 well. The KUN-202 well was spudded on October 5thand is targeting a reservoir location 1.45 km South East of the Kundji-200 drilling platform (around 2.3km South East of the KUN-201 reservoir location). Drilling operations are expected to take around 35 to 45 days after which the plan is to use the rig to run a completion string in both wells and then skid the rig to another drilling slot and commence drilling the third well in the program. Once the rig has been moved, hydraulic fracturing operations will commence on the KUN-201 and KUN-202 wells, following which both wells will be production tested.

CEO Kjetil Solbrække commented, “We are delighted to have demonstrated significant operational improvement on the MKB license in this current drilling campaign and to have confirmed that the reservoir is oil saturated in this previously undrilled area of the licence between the KUN-1/KUN-4bis/KUN-5 and the KUN-2 locations. The well result will in due course lead to an increase in our production levels from the field and will also provide an important extension of the proved reserves in the field. We also believe that this confirmation of our geological model significantly de-risks the remaining wells in the six well campaign”.

The MKB permit is a 700 km2license onshore in the Republic of Congo.  The Mengo, Kundji and Bindi fields contain light (32° API) oil in low permeability Lower Cretaceous sandstone reservoirs and had a total of six producing wells drilled by Elf in the 1980's and 1990's.  The permit was reissued to Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (“SNPC”) and partners in 2009.  Panoro Energy holds 20% in the license.

For further information, please contact:

Jonas Gamre, Finance & Investor Relations Manager
Tel: +47 23 01 10 02
Cell: +47 971 18 292
Email: jonas.gamre@panoroenergy.com  

Anders Kapstad, CFO
Tel: +47 23 01 10 01
Cell: +47 918 17 442
Email: anders.kapstad@panoroenergy.com