Circle Oil's shares climbed after the oil and gas company said it was pleased with the results of the sidetrack of the AASE-19 well on the Al Amir SE field in Egypt.

AASE-19 was drilled on December 1st and subsequently side-tracked for geological reasons. The well's objective was to appraise both the Shagar and Rahmi sands for production.

It encountered the Kareem sands with 14 feet of net pay in the Shagar and 10.5 feet of net pay in the Rahmi. Both zones are of good reservoir quality, Circle Oil said.

Initial short term testing of the well has yielded flow rates, under a 48/64 inch choke, of 1,242 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and 1.13m standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d )of gas for a total of 1,448 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).

The rig will move to drill the infill AASE-21 well located about 1,200 metres south-east of AASE-4 and 800 metres north-west of the AASE-1X well to appraise both the Shagar and Rahmi sands for production.

The current gross daily production rate from the AASE and the Geyad Field is now standing at 11,190 bopd and 11.2 MMscf/d for a total of 13,228 boepd.

Chief Executive, Chris Green, said: "Circle is very pleased with the results of the sidetrack of the AASE-19 well, which will provide additional oil and gas production from the Al Amir SE field."

Shares rose 0.56% to 22.50p at 16:05 on Monday.

RD

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