The Shaikan block is situated about 85 km to the north-west of Erbil covering an area of 283 km². The Production Sharing Contract (“PSC”) for the Shaikan block was awarded in November 2007 to Gulf Keystone Petroleum International (Operator with the working interest of 75%), Kalegran Ltd. (100% subsidiary of MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas Plc. with 20%) and Texas Keystone Inc. (5%)1.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has an option to nominate a third party interest of up to 15% in the Shaikan PSC and a further option to nominate a government interest of up to 20% following a commercial discovery.
On 27 April 2009 the Company spudded its first exploration well, Shaikan-1 and on 6 August 2009 it was announced that the Company had made a significant discovery. Following the successful appraisal of the Shaikan discovery, currently underway, a development plan will be prepared for submission to and approval by the authorities and partners.
In 2010, acquisition of 599 km² of 3D seismic data was completed over the Shaikan block with the data being processed in 2011.
Gulf Keystone announced the initial Shaikan gross oil-in-place volumes in January 2010 followed by a significant upward revision in April 2011. Click here to access a summary of the Shaikan discovery gross oil-in-place volumes
1Held in trust for GKPI
