Operational Update – Completion of drilling in KUN-203 and commencement of fraccing operations 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-203 well and the commencement of fraccing operations in Mengo-Kundji-Bindi ("MKB").

The KUN-203 well was the third of up to six wells to be drilled in this new drilling campaign. The well was vertically drilled to a location directly below the Kundji-200 drilling platform and encountered the top reservoir of the Kundji field on prognosis at 1,288 meters. The well was drilled to a final depth of 1,697 meters, which included coring approximately 83 meters of the reservoir, before running logs and installing a 7” casing across the reservoir. Panoro are awaiting the final well logs from the operator and the results will be released when received.

Operations to perforate and hydraulically fracture two zones in KUN-203 are underway after which the completion string will be run.  Once these operations are complete, the well will be production tested, before performing similar operations on the KUN-201 well and KUN-202 wells. Once the fraccing and completion of these three wells are finished, the forward programme is to spud KUN-204 in early Q1-2012. 

The MKB permit is a 700 km2 license 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