Bankers Petroleum Ltd. made a successful bid in the third Hungarian bid round for the Püspökladány Block in northeastern Hungary’s Pannonian Basin, a press release said Nov. 25.

Bankers will operate the license and fund its share of the work commitment, totaling 12.3 million euros of new investment into Hungary, over a three and a half-year contractual term.

David French, president and CEO, said the basin is oil- and gas-rich, and that Hungary has produced oil and gas within this target-rich area before. The company has screened acreage for the past two years, he said, and noted that the company is working with the Hungarian authorities TDE Services, the Hungarian partner.

Püspökladány Block totals 878 sq km containing the abandoned Biharnagybajom (BNB) oil field and prospects identified on both historical 2-D and 3-D seismic. BNB has not been worked on within the past 20 years aside from a portion of a 3-D seismic shot over 500 sq km of the block in 2005.

Bankers, under a newly formed joint venture (JV) with TDE Services known as PanBridge Hungary Zrt., will acquire 200 sq km of 3-D seismic over a portion of the block, and three subsequent vertical exploration wells will be drilled by 2019 to assess the field’s potential and surrounding exploration targets.

Bankers will hold an 85% interest and TDE will hold 15%.The bid by the JV included a 2 million euro signing bonus. Bankers will finance the program through available cash resources.

Bankers’ anchor asset is Albania’s Patos-Marinza oil field and neighboring concessions Block "F" and Kucova.

Bankers Petroleum Ltd. is based in Calgary, Alberta.