JKX Oil and Gas confirmed that test production from the M-53 well has commenced in its Elizavetovskoye license in Poltava, Ukraine.

During a multi-choke test, the well flowed at an average rate of 3.8 million cu ft per day of gas and 1.1 barrels per day of condensate and water through a 30/64-in choke with a flowing wellhead pressure of 788 psi. The well has been tied back through a test separator to the adjacent Mashivske field processing facility from where it is being exported into the Ukrainian gas pipeline network.

The well is owned by the state company Ukrgasvydobuvannya (UGD) and is being operated under a joint producing agreement (JPA) between JKX's wholly owned Ukrainian subsidiary, Poltava Petroleum Co. (PPC), UGD and its agent LLC KhAS. Under the JPA, PPC receives one third of production from the well as the Elizavetovskoye license holder.

The agreement is valid for three years and, if justified by test production from the well, it envisages the recompletion of two further existing wells owned by UGD in the Elizavetovskoye license and the installation of a stand-alone gas treatment plant. Thereafter, PPC can develop the field as it chooses and all production from any wells drilled by PPC will be wholly owned by PPC.