Ascent Resources has commenced the drilling of the Arrone-1 gas exploration well in the 358 sq km Fiume Arrone Exploration Permit in Central Italy. The well, which is targeting gas prospective basal Pliocene sands, is 25km west of Rome and 11km north-north-west of Rome's Fiumincino International airport.

Arrone-1 is the first well on the permit and the partners in the project are Oracle Energy of Canada (20%), Italmin Exploration of Italy (14%) and JKX of the UK (10%). Ascent Resources Italia is the operator with a 56% working interest.

The Arrone-1 well spudded on Saturday and the conductor casing is now set and cemented at 55m. It is planned to drill to a depth of 1,000m and is expected to take approximately three weeks to complete. Two wells have previously been drilled in the area of the permit, one of which, the Roma-2 well drilled in 1955, reported gas shows.

Ascent Resources Managing Director Jeremy Eng said, "As highlighted by our recent three announcements including the spudding of the Arrone-1 well, the farm-out in the Po Valley and the on-going test on the Anagni-1 well, Ascent has a diverse spread of projects and a continued high level of exploration drilling activity."

Production testing of the Anagni-1 well continues and a further update will be provided by the Company in due course.