New well sets daily production record for PetroTal

PetroTal announced on Thursday that well 10H, which commenced production on 30 January, had set a new internal daily production record with an average standalone 10-day production level of 10,050 barrels of oil per day.

The AIM-traded firm said the latest reported rate was 10,122 barrels of oil per day.

It said the well's final cost was $11.5m - 17% under budget - adding that it came on-stream on schedule, and had already paid out over 45% of its total well cost at $90 per Brent barrel.

Well 10H, PetroTal noted, was the longest horizontal well drilled to date in Peru.

The firm also said it set a new company daily record production level of 20,891 barrels of oil on 1 February, surpassing the mark set in mid-December when well 9H was brought on-stream.

With the company's central processing facility ‘CPF-2’ fully commissioned, PetroTal said it was now awaiting final ministry approval - expected around 15 February - to operate to its maximum capacity of 24,000 to 26,000 barrels per day, from current constrained production of around 20,000 barrels.

“We have set additional production records with 10H's early production rates,” said president and chief executive officer Manuel Pablo Zuniga-Pflucker.

“We are extremely pleased from a technical standpoint at what this could mean for the future performance of PetroTal's drilling inventory and are pleased to deliver a strong start to 2022 for shareholders.”

At 1218 GMT, shares in PetroTal were up 12.12% at 37p.