Aurelian Oil & Gas PLC announced that its Romanian subsidiary, Aurelian Oil & Gas Romania S.R.L., spudded the Radauti East-1 well, on Tuesday 17th April.

This is a shallow well to be drilled to a depth of 935 metres and is anticipated to take approximately 15 days to drill to total depth. The well is designed to test Sarmatian sands, equivalent to those producing gas in Bilca-1, Bilca-2 and Fratauti-1. Aurelian is operator and holds a 33.75% interest.

Michael Seymour, Managing Director of Aurelian commented: "This is the first of five wells planned to be drilled in Romania this year - on their own they constitute an ambitious programme which will balance the potential excitement already imminent with the riskier deeper wells we are now drilling in both Poland and Bulgaria. A 50% success rate with these shallow wells, could double the rate of Aurelian's Romanian gas production by early 2009."