Gulf Keystone announced that the Shaikan-4 Deep Appraisal Well has spudded on the Shaikan block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on Friday May 27, 2011.

Shaikan-4 is the second deep appraisal well to be drilled on the Company's significant oil discovery with gross oil-in-place volumes of between 4.9 billion barrels to 10.8 billion barrels calculated on the P90 to P10 basis with a mean value of 7.5 billion barrels.

Shaikan-4 is being drilled 6 kilometers to the north-west of the Shaikan-1 discovery well and is targeted to drill to the top of the Permian to reach the planned total depth (TD) of approximately 3,760 meters.

Gulf Keystone is the Operator of the Shaikan block with a working interest of 75 percent and is partnered with Kalegran Ltd. (a 100 percent subsidiary of MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Plc.) and Texas Keystone Inc, which have working interests of 20 percent and 5 percent respectively.

John Gerstenlauer, Gulf Keystone's Chief Operating Officer commented, "The spudding of our second deep appraisal well on the Shaikan structure is yet another important achievement in the Company's ambitious 2011-2012 exploration and appraisal programme in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. With the Shaikan-2 & 4 appraisal wells currently underway and the Shaikan-5 appraisal well planned to spud later in 2011, the Company is firmly focused on further proving the world class quality of the Shaikan discovery."

Tags: Gulf Keystone Petroleum