Dart Energy Limited has commenced drilling activities at the Dajing project in Xinjiang Province, China, with the spudding of the first two exploration wells (DJD-02E and DJD-10E). This is part of an initial exploration program which will see a total of up to 14 exploration wells drilled prior to year end, and assuming no program delays, Dart would expect first core drilling results to be available in the first quarter of 2012.

This follows approval in August of the 2011 exploration program and budget by the Dajing Joint Management Committee (JMC). The JMC is comprised of representatives of both Dart and its partner at Dajing, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

In addition to the spudding of the first wells, the following other activities have been completed at the Dajing project:

• 4 drilling rigs have been mobilised to site • 3 on-site desorption units and 2 permeability testing units have been mobilised to site • 3 work camps established on-site • Site and road construction for 2 other exploration wells has been completed (DJD-O1E; DJD-O4E), with those wells expected to be spud within the next week

Nick Davies, Dart executive chairman, said: "We are now operationally underway at Dajing, which is a major milestone for Dart. Dajing has the potential to be a project of substantial scale within the Dart global portfolio, and our attention is completely focussed on executing the exploration drilling campaign diligently, quickly and safely. Dart Energy looks forward to working collaboratively with our partner, CNPC, to unlock the potential of this block."

Tags: Dart Energy Limited