The joint venture partners said they also intend to re-enter and test the Umur-1 well when the new equipment arrives and the drilling rig becomes available in about three months.

On January 17, the Koyustu-1 exploration well in Edirne Licence flowed gas at rates up to 2 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMcfd) from one of three intervals totalling about 17.5m.

The rig was then moved about 1.5km southwest to the Bati Umur-1 well for flow testing. The operator perforated the main gas pay interval 365-370m to conduct various flow tests on different chokes and on January 18, Bati Umur-1 was flowing at rate of 3.6MMcfd from the interval 265-370m.

Otto at the time said optimum sustainable production is expected to be between 2.5MMcfd and 3MMcfd.

The rig will next be moved to the Umur-1 location.

Otto said Umur-1 was drilled in 1986 and may have “bypassed” gas potential in the same sand interval (but 50% thicker in Umur-1) successfully tested by Bati Umur-1.

It said Umur-1 is in the same structural closure as Bati Umur-1 and if successfully re-entered and tested, could be used as another production well.

Due to the unavailability of critical equipment, the test was postponed to a later date to coincide with the drilling of the next exploration well, Yagci-1.