Russia-focused oil and gas group Matra Petroleum PLC (LON:MTA) said it has made made good progress in 2010 with the drilling of well A-13, the first appraisal well on the Sokolovskoe field, and the grant of a 20-year licence for the field.
It is expecting to move onto the next stage of development and further drilling later this year once production testing of existing wells is complete.
The comments came alongside Matra’s full-year results report, which saw pretax losses narrow to €1.77 million in the 12 months to end-December 2010 from €2.3 million a year earlier.
During the period under review, the group completed well A-13, Well A-12 was successfully side-tracked and is now being prepared for production.
An Independent field assessment published late last year showed unrisked upside potential of the Sokolovskoe field to be in excess of 50 million barrels of oil.
Managing director Peter Hind said: “We are fortunate to begin producing at a time of improving oil prices. Our focus for 2011 is therefore to advance the development and production of the Sokolovskoe field. This is the key to the future growth of the company.
“Our longer term strategy is to build a bigger portfolio of similar projects, ideally within the same region of Russia. We are continuously reviewing new opportunities but it was clear that we should demonstrate success in Sokolovskoe to investors before moving on to new territory. More emphasis will therefore be placed on selectively broadening the company's portfolio during the coming year,” he added.