M/V Polar Duchess Completes Seychelles 3D Seismic Survey

Australian energy company WHL Energy Limited (WHL Energy or the Company) announced Tuesday that the 590 square miles (1,528 square kilometers) Junon 3D seismic survey offshore Seychelles has been completed. The specialist seismic acquisition vessel M/V Polar Duchess contracted by Ophir Energy plc (Ophir Energy), operator of the jointly held Seychelles exploration blocks is demobilizing from the survey area.

The survey has been completed with no reportable environmental or safety incidents. WHL Energy is carried up to $17.0 million through the acquisition and processing of the seismic survey by Ophir as part of Ophir’s farm-in to the Seychelles acreage. The survey took 36 days which was in line with the 30-40 days estimated and within budget. The data will now be processed with an initial fast track processed data set expected to be delivered in September and a PreSTM processed volume in December.

The Junon 3D seismic survey is designed to mature a number of prospects for drilling on the Junon trend in the east of the Ophir Energy/WHL Energy Seychelles acreage (Junon South, Junon East and Junon Central), an area high graded by WHL Energy’s geological studies.

David Rowbottam, WHL Energy’s managing director, commented: “Good progress continues to be made with our Seychelles project with the completion of acquisition of the Junon 3D seismic survey, in a very short time period since Ophir assumed operatorship. The survey was completed without incident which is testament to Ophir’s planning and operating capability. The Junon 3D dataset is expected to provide a high definition subsurface image of the Junon structures and provide a number of prospects from which to select for drilling. The company is looking forward to receiving the processed data.”