Toreador Resources Corporation and its joint venture partners TPAO (the Turkish national oil company) and Stratic Energy Corporation today announced results from production testing of the deepest of seven potential pay zones in the Akcakoca-3 well, located in coastal Turkish waters of the Black Sea.

The zone flow tested at a rate of approximately 18 million cubic feet of gas per day from 10 meters (33 feet) of perforations between 1,536 and 1,559 meters (5,040 and 5,116 feet) true vertical depth. Flowing pressure was approximately 1,200 pounds per square inch through a 48/64-inch diameter choke. Current plans call for the testing of the uppermost zone in the well, which has approximately 25 meters (82 feet) of net pay between 1,167 and 1,193 meters (3,830 and 3,915 feet) true vertical depth, next week. The well has been designed to accept a dual completion string to allow simultaneous gas production from both shallow and deep zones in the reservoir.

"The excellent flow test results confirm the analysis of our well logs last week," said G. Thomas Graves III, President and Chief Executive Officer of Toreador. "Although we will not complete our present well testing program until next week, we felt it important to share these results with our investors before the beginning of the long holiday season." Graves added that the company plans to provide another operational update in early January.

Last week the company announced that well logs from the Akcakoca-3 had indicated net pay of approximately 81 meters (266 feet) in seven potential pay zones. As noted, Toreador plans to test one more potential pay zone before suspending operations on the current well and beginning operations on the next well, the Akcakoca-4. The Akcakoca-4 will be drilled to evaluate a separate fault block along the Akcakoca trend in the deeper waters of the South Akcakoca Sub-basin project area.