Shares in U.K.-based Kazakhstan explorer Max Petroleum dipped over four percent Friday on news the company was changing its strategy to include a shallow exploration focus that’ll tap into its credit, unless oil companies are found to tackle its “high-risk, high-reward” acreage.

Max operated two gas exploration licences in the Pre-Caspian Basin, one of the most prolific hydrocarbon basins in the world. The company’s deep portfolio “is amongst the best in the world”, lying as it does within a short jeep ride of the gigantic Tengiz field.

But the shallower 10 to 15 drillable prospects are to be the focus of drilling set to begin in late summer of 2009.

Max is keen to keep 100 percent ot its shallow portfolio, where up to 15 wells “a greater than 90 percent chance of at least one commercial discovery”, while up to three commercial discoveries worth 100 million barrels of oil equivalent are seen lying in wait.

The shallower wells are seen costing $2 million each, or up to $30 million, and management said it will need up to $70 million from its lenders and the sale of some of the most promising pre-salt stakes in the former Soviet sphere.

Tags: Max Petroleum Plc