OREANDA-NEWS. September 25, 2014. Horizon Oil (ASX:HZN) has advised that drilling has commenced on the first of two oil exploration wells in the Beibu Gulf Block 22/12 offshore China.

The drilling program follows up on earlier exploration discoveries and the development of the WZ 6-12 and WZ 12-8W fields carried out in 2012 and 2013. These have already produced over six million barrels of oil. The WZ 12-10-1 well targets incremental volumes to the WZ 12-8W project and the future 12-8E project and will also provide an expansion of the existing development acreage by 8.8 square kilometres to 66.6 square kilometres.

Should WZ 12-10-1 be successful, the WZ 12-8E development plan will be able to be modified to include the discovery. This expanded development block will provide the opportunity for further exploration and development activities. WZ 12-10-1 is located 4.7 kilometres east northeast of the existing WZ 12-8W platform and is in water depth of approximately 35 metres.

It targets the T42 and Weizhou West formations adjacent to the WZ 12-8E field of the WZ 12-8 Development Area. The second well is WZ 12-10-2 adjacent to the WZ 12-8W field.