CALGARY, ALBERTA — (Marketwire) — 02/13/13 — Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. (WARSAW: KOV) (“Kulczyk Oil”, “KOV” or the “Company”), an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company, is pleased to announce that its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, AED South East Asia Limited (“AED SEA”), has now signed a drilling contract with PT Energi Tata Persada (“PT Energi”), a drilling company based in Jakarta, Indonesia for the use of their ETP-03 drilling rig on the Brunei Block L Phase 2 drilling campaign. To meet the Phase 2 drilling commitments for Block L, AED SEA will drill two exploration wells, subject to receiving regulatory approvals, prior to the end of August 2013. The spud date of the first well is anticipated for early April 2013.
The rig is currently in Sulawesi, Indonesia, preparing to mobilise to Brunei. It is estimated that the rig will arrive in Brunei in early March and will be transported to the first drill site after customs clearance. The first exploration well to be drilled in the 2013 drilling campaign will be a 2,900 metre well to evaluate the Lukut Updip Prospect, from a location approximately 4 kilometres updip from and to the east of the Lukut-1 well. The Lukut Updip Prospect is a geologically constrained 2-way fault bounded structural closure.
Upon completion of the Lukut Updip well the drilling rig will move 12 kilometres southwest to drill an exploration well on the Luba Prospect. The Luba exploration well is expected to be directionally drilled to a measured depth of approximately 3,500 metres to evaluate the potential of fault trap in the greater Triple Junction area with a potential closure of approximately 15 km2 (1.5 kilometres by 10 kilometres). The main target of the well is a potential seismic direct hydrocarbon indicator or “flat spot” at a depth of approximately 2,550 metres. Additional information with respect to the Lukut Updip and Luba prospect were contained in a KOV news release on 3 January 2013.
All major contracts for services and operational staff to execute the drilling program are now in place. The Lukut Updip-1 location has been surveyed and geotechnical evaluation of the site has been completed. Construction of road access and the location has begun and is 10% completed. The Luba-1 location has been surveyed and the geotechnical evaluation of the site has been 80% completed. Road and lease construction have not started.
KOV, through two indirect subsidiaries, owns a 90% working interest in the Block L Production Sharing Agreement (“Block L PSA”) which gives the Company the right to explore for and produce oil and natural gas from Block L, a 1,123 square kilometre area covering certain onshore and offshore areas in northern Brunei. AED SEA has a 50% working interest in, and is the operator of, the Block L PSA. Another indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Kulczyk Oil Brunei Limited (“Kulczyk Oil Brunei”), has a 40% working interest in the Block L PSA.
About Kulczyk Oil
Kulczyk Oil is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Ukraine, Brunei and Syria and with a risk profile ranging from exploration in Brunei and Syria to production and development in Ukraine. The common shares of the Company trade on the Warsaw Stock Exchange under trading symbol “KOV”.
In Ukraine, KOV owns an effective 70% interest in KUB-Gas LLC. The assets of KUB-Gas consist of 100% interests in five licences near to the City of Lugansk in the northeast part of Ukraine. Four of the licences are gas producing.
In Brunei, KOV owns a 90% working interest in a production sharing agreement which gives the Company the right to explore for and produce oil and natural gas from Block L, a 1,123 square kilometre area covering onshore and offshore areas in northern Brunei.
In Syria, KOV holds a participating interest of 50% in the Syria Block 9 production sharing contract which provides the right to explore for and, upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, to produce oil and gas from Block 9, a 10,032 square kilometre area in northwest Syria. The Company has an agreement to assign a 5% ownership interest to a third party which is subject to the approval of Syrian authorities, and which, if approved, would leave the Company with a remaining effective interest of 45% in Syria Block 9. KOV declared force majeure, with respect to its operations in Syria, in July 2012.
The main shareholder of the Company is Kulczyk Investments S.A., an international investment house founded by Polish businessman Dr. Jan Kulczyk.
Translation: This news release has been translated into Polish from the English original.
Forward-looking Statements This release may contain forward-looking statements made as of the date of this announcement with respect to future activities of KOV and related to the drilling of Brunei Block L and to certain other activities undertaken within Brunei Block L that either are not or may not be historical facts. Although the Company believes that its expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date hereof, any potential results suggested by such statements involve risk and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Various factors that could impair or prevent the Company from completing the expected activities on its projects include that the Company–s projects experience technical and mechanical problems, there are changes in product prices, failure to obtain regulatory approvals, the state of the national or international monetary, oil and gas, financial, political and economic markets in the jurisdictions where the Company operates and other risks not anticipated by the Company or disclosed in the Company–s published material. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties and actual results may vary materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statement. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in this announcement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement, unless required by law.
Contacts:
Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. – Canada
Norman W. Holton
Vice Chairman
403-264-8877
Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. – Poland
Jakub J. Korczak
Vice President Investor Relations & Managing Director CEE
+48 22 414 21 00