Maple Energy to Build Rig for Sun Drilling at $16 Million

Maple Energy

Maple Energy has concluded a contract with Sun Drilling to construct a 2,000 horse power heli-transportable diesel-electric drilling rig.

Pursuant to the terms of the contract, Maple will pay a total of approximately U.S. $16 million to Sun Drilling for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the rig. Maple plans to finance a substantial portion of the cost of the rig in 2008 with long-term financing from one or more financial institutions in Peru.

The rig will be used to drill the Santa Rosa and Cashiboya Deep exploration prospects in Maple´s Block 31E located in the central jungle region of Peru. Major components will be manufactured outside Peru, and the rig will be assembled in Lima, Peru. The rig is expected to be transported and mobilized to the Santa Rosa 1X wellsite by the middle of 2008.

The Santa Rosa 1X exploration well is programmed for the second half of 2008 and will be drilled to an estimated total depth of 14,750 feet to test the Cretaceous and Paleozoic reservoirs and source rocks down to the Devonian in the northeastern area of the Ucayali Basin.

“The addition of this rig to our existing drilling and workover fleet will be a valuable and strategic asset for Maple,” said Maple Chairman of the Board and Executive Director Jack Hanks. “It will give us control over rig availability enabling us to meet our exploration timetable and provides us with some of the latest technology which will enable us to drill wells more economically. This will also position Maple to be able to participate in other exploration opportunities in Peru.”


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