Imperial Announces New Discovery East of Ob River

Imperial announced the first new oil discovery on the Company’s Kiev Eganskoye field, East of the OB River, Tomsk region, Russian Federation. The Kiev Eganskoye vertical well 361 was spudded on the 3rd of May 2008 on Block 80 on the right bank of the Ob river and has encountered and cored 7 m oil bearing B8 (Cretaceous) sandstones at a depth of 2278.3m.

The well is being drill stem tested and is currently free flowing without stimulation or pumping at a rate of 1,575 barrels per day. This reservoir was not the Company’s primary objective and drilling continues to target the deeper B10, Jurassic and Paleozoic sands. Importantly there are no SPE or Russian Registered Reserves for the Lower Cretaceous section and Imperial intends to apply for registration of Russian category of C1+C2 reserves in the course of the current year.

The discovery is in the B8 sands from the Lower Cretaceous which extends for 5 km to the east of the main structure, where log data in an old Soviet exploration well show the B8 reservoir to be 5m thick and also oil bearing. Seismic data shows the B8 sand to be continuous over at least an area of 5km by 3km on the north east of the Kiev Eganskoye field. The extent of the B8 sands in the southern part of the field will be tested by exploration drilling this year. Based on a recent 3D seismic survey conducted by Imperial and data from older Soviet wells, this B8 sandstone is part of a suite of Lower Cretaceous sandstone layers (B4 –B10) which are tens of meters thick and may also be oil bearing.

Imperial is currently in the process of batch drilling 5 wells on the Kiev Eganskoye field with three heavy duty rigs including the Company’s recently purchased rig 502. 14 further wells are planned to be drilled on the field this year.

In April 2008 Imperial completed the first ever pipeline East of the Ob River. The 152km pipeline, connects Imperial’s Block 80 to its existing Zavyalovo Custody Transfer Station and unlocks the field’s reserves and production potential. First oil through that pipeline is targeted for autumn 2008.

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