Petro Matad spuds Gazelle-1 exploration well ahead of schedule

Mongolian oil explorer Petro Matad said on Thursday that it had spudded its Gazelle-1 exploration well in the north of Block XX.

Petro Matad said the rig move from Heron-1 and the rig-up at the Gazelle location had been handled "very efficiently" by owner DQE and its in-field supervisors, leading to work being completed a "little earlier" than previously forecast.

The AIM-listed group will drill Gazelle-1 to a total depth of 2,500 metres over approximately 35 days.

Petro Matad expects the Gazelle Prospect, located just 4.5km southwest of Petro China's T19-46-1 oil well, to hold an estimated mean prospective recoverable resource of 13m barrels of oil.

"In the event of a discovery at Gazelle-1, it is expected that sufficient time will remain before the winter shut down of operations in late November to allow well testing of Gazelle-1 to be carried out this year," added Petro Matad.

As of 1030 BST, Petro Matad shares had climbed 6.60% to 5.25p.