CALGARY – Niko Resources Ltd. (TSX:NKO), a Calgary-based oil and gas company which operates internationally, says it has completed its first offshore well in Trinidad, a new exploration focus area for the company.
Niko said Thursday the Rowan Gorilla III rig is on location at the Stalin prospect, the first of three wells planned for Block 2ab off Trinidad and Tobago’s eastern continental shelf in the Caribbean Sea northeast of Venezuela.
The Stalin-1 well is named after the popular calypso great, Black Stalin.
Niko operates the block and has a 35.75 per cent working interest. Its partners in the exploration block are Trinidad energy company Petrotrin, with 35 per cent, and Britain’s Centrica Plc, with 29.25 per cent.
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The well is being drilled in 100 feet of water to a total depth of 8,800 feet/
Niko’ said is targeting a deposit which could range between 600 million to 800 million gross in-place oil equivalent barrels in the deposit.
Last week, Niko said it would focus more of its exploration on Trinidad and Indonesia as the company moved away from expanding in India, where it faces some hurdles to growth.
Niko also reported a net loss of nearly US$44 million in its latest quarter as the company took exploration costs and one-time charges on its books.
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Niko said it lost US$43.9 million for the fiscal 2012 second quarter ended Sept. 30. That compared with a profit of $23.8 million a year earlier.
The company, which reports in U.S. dollars, booked $45 million of exploration and evaluation costs and a $14 million charge for the cancellation of certain stock options.
Meanwhile, oil and natural gas revenues fell to US$86.8 million from $105.8 million.
The company also recently signed a $700 million contract for drilling services in Indonesia.
The contract with a subsidiary of Diamond Offshore, a major deepwater drilling contractor, will begin late next spring or early summer.
Niko produces and explores for oil and natural gas in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Trinidad, Pakistan and Madagascar.
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