Afren, the FTSE 250 oil and gas firm focused in Africa and the Middle East, announced on Wednesday morning that it has started drilling at its East Simrit prospect located on the Ain Sifni project in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Afren and Ain Sifni's operator, Hunt Oil Middle East, have commenced exploration drilling at the Simrit-3 well, located around 10km east of the successful Simrit-2 discovery well.

Simrit-2 was drilled to a total measured depth of 3,800 metres and encountered 460m of net oil pay throughout Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic age reservoirs. The well test programme which started in June is still ongoing on this well.

Afren, which owns a 20% stake in Ain Sifni (Hunt Oil owns 60% and the Kurdistan government owns 20%), said that Simrit-3 is looking for the presence of oil within the same reservoir intervals as the previous well.

"The drilling and test results recorded to date have already confirmed Ain Sifni in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to be a world-class asset," said Chief Executive Osman Shahenshah.

"The Simrit-3 exploration well, which is part of ongoing evaluation of the block's transformational potential, will test the areal extent of the existing discovery," he said.

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