LONDON – Kurdistan-focused Genel Energy (GENL.L) might start drilling in Somaliland next year, Chief Executive Murat Ozgul said on Thursday, as the group reported 2017 results broadly in line with expectations.
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“For the long term, I really like (our) Somaliland exploration assets. It’s giving me a sense of Kurdistan 15 years ago,” Ozgul said in a phone interview. “In 2019 we may be (starting) the drilling activities.”
Chief Financial Officer Esa Ikaheimonen said Genel Energy will focus spending money from its $162 million cash pile on its existing assets in Kurdistan but added: “You might see us finding opportunities… somewhere outside Kurdistan.”
About Genel Energy PLC
Genel Energy Plc is a holding company. The Company is engaged in the business of oil and gas exploration and production in the Republic of Somaliland and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The Company’s segments include Kurdistan and Africa.
Genel Energy Plc has interests in approximately two producing fields in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Taq Taq, and Tawke, with access to local and international markets. Its fields have an estimated gross proven and probable (2P) reserves of approximately 800 million barrels of oil, and gross proven, probable, and possible reserves of approximately 1.2 billion barrels of oil.
Its Taq Taq license area is located approximately 60 kilometers northeast of the Kirkuk oil field and the adjacent city of Kirkuk, over 85 kilometers southeast of the city of Erbil, and over 120 kilometers northwest of the city of Sulaymaniyah. The gross area of the Taq Taq license area is approximately 950 square kilometers. Its Bina Bawi field is located approximately 300 kilometers from Turkey.
