Ascent Positive After Penészlek Drilling

Ascent Resources has been left upbeat on its Hungarian operations, following the successful sidetrack drilling of the PEN-105A well on the Penészlek Project.

The well, which was completed by PetroHungaria in which Ascent has a 48.3 per cent stake, was drilled to a depth of 1,640 metres, have exceeded the company's expectations, Ascent says. PetroHungaria began drilling on the well towards the end of last month.

The results of this well exceed that of the original PEN-105 well drilled 460 metres from PEN-105A. PEN-105A was first drilled to target remaining gas reserves from the southern part of the structure, which began production in March 2010. The original well has so far recovered 850 million cubic feet of gas.

Ascent says sidetrack PEN-105A well flowed better than expected at 928,000 cubic feet a day and could prolong the life of the field.

"This PEN-105A performance is a good result and can be expected to prolong the production from the Penészlek field for at least a couple of years," Ascent's Managing Director Jeremy Eng said.

"Gas prices in Hungary are strong and this production will provide very useful revenue to the group pending the start-up of joint venture production from the Petišovci Project in Slovenia."

Ascent says additional perforation work would be performed on the well in the coming weeks, with an acid wash also planned in a bid to increase production. Production from the PEN-105 well doubled after an acid wash was performed on it.