New drilling in Syria
Kulczyk Oil Venture subsidiary, Loon Lataki, is to start exploratory drilling in North West Syria.
The first well will be sunk in Block 9 of the Itheria field by Loon Lataki which is owned by Calgary-based and Warsaw-registered Kulczyk Oil, controlled by Polish billionare Jan Kulczyk. The company bought the rights to the Itheria block in 2007 but has only now start exploration.
The block is more than 10,000km2 is believed to contain some 338m boe, of which 70% is owned by Kulczyk with the rest assigned by the company to third parties. The new exploration should help to revive Syria's flagging crude output figures.
Total reserves across the country are estimated to be the fifth highest in the Middle East and organisations including Total, Eni and CNPC are currently bidding for further onshore exploration licences, with three offshore blocks up for action in October this year.
