About Us
Caspian has a dominant acreage position in the historic and oil rich Fergana Basin in the Kyrgyz Republic, located in a one of the world's great oil provinces which stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Tarim Basin in China.
There are two separate facets to Caspian’s Kyrgyz operations. Caspian operates its 650hp drilling rig to explore and appraise prospects in its own right and in joint venture with other players, while Australian oil and gas major Santos is conducting a seismic program across all of Caspian’s leases under a separate farm-in arrangement to assess the potential for large structures at depth.
Santos is in the second of a three stage US$24 million farmin to earn an 80% interest in all of the licences, excluding the shallow production potential down to 1,000m depth on the northern Fergana licences of Charvak, Ashvaz, East Mailisu and West Mailisu.
Caspian already produces oil from some of these shallow leases, though currently in limited quantities. Caspian has a regional headquarters in Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic and operational offices in Mailisu. It currently employs either directly or indirectly over 100 people.
Caspian holds a 70% interest in a company owning the Mailisu III oilfield under another joint venture agreement, with the Kyrgyz Government oil company KNG.
The Mailisu III JV lease has no depth restrictions on it. Mailisu III is an existing oilfield and has produced about 700,000 bbls of oil to date. Existing production wells are excluded from the agreement.
To facilitate the exploration of the shallow northern acreage and the Mailisu III leases, Caspian purchased a drilling rig capable of drilling to around 2,500m for approximately US$4 million in 2007.
The initial drilling campaign has focussed on assessing the extent and productivity of the shallow Mailisu III field.
Other Interests
Caspian Oil & Gas Limited began operations in 1995 as a mineral explorer before changing its focus to oil in 2003. It spun-off of its major gold assets to Perseus Mining Limited in September 2004. At 30 June 2008 Caspian retained a 14% interest in Perseus (ASX:PRU), which has exciting gold projects in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Caspian has also farmed out its Congo diamond projects to BRC Diamondcorp, its Mansunia gold project in Guinea to Burey Gold and its Ghana diamond interests to Paramount Mining.