Echo Energy makes gas discovery on Argentine asset

Oil and gas company Echo Energy announced on Friday that it has made a gas discovery at the ELM-1004 exploration well at the company's onshore Fracción C asset in Argentina.

The AIM-traded company said the well, where drilling has now been completed, saw gas peaks of over 195,000 parts per million and a full distribution of C1 to C5 hydrocarbons in over 40 metres of gas after being drilled down to 1,760 metres.

Determining net pay at the site is complicated due to the mineralogy of the volcanic reservoir, according to Echo Energy.

The company’s estimates put the net pay at around 14.5 metres within the gas section which is towards the upper end of the anticipated range.

Fiona MacAulay, chief executive of Echo, said: “We are very excited to have confirmed the presence of a substantial gas column in this first well of our four well exploration programme and look forward to the arrival of the completion rig and subsequent testing in June. Meanwhile our attention turns to ELA-1 where we expect to spud the well within the next few days.”

The well will now be tested to determine deliverability of the reservoir and the rig will move directly to the second prospect in Echo’s four well exploration progamme, ELA-1 at Los Alamos x-1.

As of 0840 BST, Echo Energy’s shares were up 15.73% at 15.45p.