Talisman, San Leon Hits Shale Gas at Szymkowo-1 Well

San Leon Energy has today announced that it has successfully hit shale gas in the Baltic Basin for a third time following the completion of the Szymkowo-1 well in Poland.

The well, which is operated by Canadian company Talisman Energy, was drilled to a depth of 4,551 metres, San Leon said today, encountering continuous gas shows in more than 600 metres of lower Silurian and Ordovician shales. Within these gas shows, the strongest shows were recorded in the Lower Silurian and Ordovician interval, the company said. This interval is estimated to be over 100 metres thick combined.

Following the completion of the operations, the well has now been cased, ready for future operations. These operations, San Leon says, could include pressure testing of the formations (DFIT test) as well as possible hydraulic fracturing across several intervals.

Evaluation will now be carried out on data taken during the drilling of the exploration well and is expected to be completed within six months. This in preparatiion of continuation operations in 2013, San Leon says. This evaluation and interpretation of data will include 315 metres of continuous core data, and an open-hole logging programme. The evaluation of this data will help Talisman to evaluate the overall potential of the well.

San Leon said today that the well proved again the potential for shale gas in Poland.

"The results continue to show the regional variability of the basin and are proof that the deeper parts of the basin are gas charged,"  Chairman of San Leon Oisin Fanning said. "This is yet another milestone for San Leon and our successful partnership with Talisman Energy as we plan to move forward towards the next stage of our cooperation including horizontal drilling and potential testing in 2013. Our systematic approach towards evaluating our geographically and geologically diverse unconventional gas acreage in Poland continues to pay off."