Gambela Petroleum Resources information
Vancouver, BC, Jan 26, 2001 (Market News Publishing via COMTEX) -- Pinewood Resources Ltd. is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Gambela Petroleum Corporation, has signed a Production Sharing Agreement (P.S.A.) with the Ethiopian Government to explore and develop the Gambela Oil Concession located in the Gambela area of southwestern Ethiopia bordering on Sudan. The concession encompasses an area of 15,356 square kilometers, and includes the entire Melut Basin where it passes from Sudan through the southwestern toe of Ethiopia and back into Sudan. No seismic has been shot or wells drilled in the Gambela Concession to date. Compiled gravity data shows the Melut Basin in Ethiopia contained within the Gambela Concession to be one of the more potentially prospective areas in the prolific rift basin. There are two reasons for this: 1. The gravity data shows that the Melut Basin in the Gambela area contains a significant portion of the deepest part of the rift basin (20,000 to 30,000 feet of sediment). This is significant because it means that the basin in Ethiopia very likely has a full section of Abu Gabra, which is the source rock for most of the oil found to date in the Heglig/Unity area of Sudan (estimated reserves of 3 billion barrels), and 2. The gravity data shows a long inversion anticline running the length of the basin in the Gambela area. This is significant because most of the oil production to date found in Sudan has been found along a similar inversion anticline, the Heglig/Unity ridge, located in the Muglad Basin. It is noted that Chevron mapped several seismic features right up to the Ethiopian border, and drilled a 12,000 foot "strat test", Sobat No.1, right on the Sudan side of the border in 1984 just before they withdrew from Sudan. The well had oil and gas shows, but was never tested. The "strat test" well was drilled on a seismic feature that did not have closure in Sudan, but which rises into the Gambela Concession. Pinewood's exploration plan for the Gambela Concession is to cover the most attractive areas of the basin with seismic next season, and then bring in a drilling rig and test the best looking seismic features for oil the following season. Pinewood's exploration program will be coordinated by Mr. Ian Neilson, M.Sc., P.Eng., President and C.E.O. of Gambela Petroleum Corporation and the company's Calgary based Exploration Consultant, Mr. Ernie Pratt, M.Sc., P.Geol. Mr. Pratt is the former Exploration Manager of Arakis Energy Corporation. Arakis Energy Corporation developed the Sudan Oil Project, which currently produces 200,000 barrels of oil per day through a 36 inch, 1,500km pipeline that connects to the oil export terminal in Port Sudan.
