Offshore staff

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Lundin Petroleum AB's Morskaya-1 exploration well, in the northern Caspian Sea Lagansky block, has encountered a major oil accumulation in the Aptian and Neocomian sandstone reservoirs, the company says. Minor amounts of gas were encountered in the overlying Albian reservoir.

Morskaya-1 has been drilled to 2,082 m (6,831 ft) in less than 2 m (6.6 ft) of water. A significant amount of cores, wireline logs, and reservoir fluid samples have been acquired. Two of the hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs are scheduled for testing.

The Morskaya structure, which straddles the license boundary of the Lagansky block and the adjoining acreage controlled by the Caspian Oil Consortium, is on trend with several major oil and gas discoveries made by Lukoil in the Russian sector of the Caspian.

Following the testing of the Morskaya-1 well, the Marine Drilling Complex will be transported to the Laganskaya-1 well location, with drilling expected to start at the end of September.