Peak Group Secures Australian Well Management Contract

The Peak Group has secured a major contract with Australian oil exploration company AED Oil Limited for the provision of its well construction project management and procurement services. Peak has also been contracted to provide a drilling rig for AED's production and exploration drilling campaign in the Timor Sea.

The Peak Group will deliver a complete well project management service for three wells located in AED's permit area, AC-P-22, within the Ashmore Cartier area of the Vulcan Sub-Basin, in the Bonaparte basin. It is approximately 80 kilometers southwest of the commercial Jabiru and Challis fields.

The job will include detailed well design, tendering and contracting for all services, execution of the drilling programme including materials and logistics, project completion and operations wrap-up. The Peak Group will also provide a semi-submersible drilling rig, the 'Stena Clyde', and act as project service manager for the drilling in AED's permit area.

Planning and operations management services will be conducted in Melbourne in close collaboration with AED Oil and Upstream. Drilling activity is expected to commence in the second half of 2005 and the contract value is in the region of AUS $1million.

Bob Lyons, managing director of Peak Well Management, The Peak Group's well management division, said: "This is a landmark contract win for Peak and strengthens our position in Australia and Asia Pacific. A key part of the selection criteria was our ability to secure a rig in a highly competitive market. We look forward to growing and enhancing our relationship with AED throughout the development of this project."

The Peak Group's business development director, Hugh Mackay, said: "This contract strengthens our portfolio of clients and enhances Peak Well Management's reputation as a key provider of fully integrated well construction services.

"We are delighted to be playing a significant role in a fast track development project. It has been our strategy to grow our business servicing development projects, we anticipate that this will be an area of future growth for the industry and it builds on our experience gained in development projects in the UK, Iran and West Africa.

"The Peak Group holds the contract for the Stena Clyde and we intend to create a multi-client programme for the rig in Australia. This will bring the benefits and synergies of participation in a larger programme to all our clients. Peak has successfully created multi-client programmes in the UK and we intend to do the same in Australia and West Africa "

Managing director of AED Oil Limited, Dr Ken Tregonning, said: "Signing the contract is an important achievement for us and we are delighted to have reached this agreement with Peak. Securing the drilling rig is a major step in the relatively short history of AED and will enable drilling to start within the scheduled timetable and on terms consistent with the estimated project costs."