TAG Provides Cheal Operational Update
Vancouver, B.C. – November 2, 2011 – Oil and gas producer TAG Oil Ltd. (TSX: TAO and
OTCQX: TAOIF), is pleased to report continued positive drilling results at the Cheal field, with the
completion of the first two wells of a ten-well drilling campaign. Electric log analysis of these wells
indicates high-quality oil pay in the targeted Mt. Messenger and Urenui Formations. A pumping
unit is currently being mobilized to the field for extended well testing. The Company is also
pleased to announce the spudding of the Cheal-B5 appraisal / development well, which will target
the same reservoir horizons.
Cheal-C2, the first well in TAG’s current ten-well
Taranaki drilling program, targeted the Mt.
Messenger Formation and was drilled to a depth of
~2,130 meters from the Cheal C drilling pad. This
well encountered “free oil” and the highest mudlog
gas peak ever recorded at Cheal from multiple
sandstone intervals. Cheal-C2 was a “step-out” from
the Cheal-C1 oil discovery announced on June 6,
2011. For more information on Cheal-C1 discovery
please see our June 6, 2011 Press Release.
In addition, TAG has recently completed drilling of
the Cheal-A8 well, the second well in the ten-well
drilling campaign, which targeted the Urenui
Formation from the Cheal A drilling pad. The well
was drilled and cased to a depth of ~1,585 meters
with “free oil” encountered from multiple sand stone
intervals.
Garth Johnson, TAG Oil CEO, commented, “We are
very pleased at the results to date in our current
Taranaki drilling program with both wells exhibiting what appears to be excellent oil pay in several
intervals. We are also undergoing a field optimization project including water flooding and
workover / recompletion of existing older wells to enhance the field productivity.”
The Cheal oil and gas field, 100%-controlled by TAG Oil, is located in Petroleum Mining Permit
38156 in the onshore Taranaki Basin, New Zealand.
TAG Oil Ltd.
TAG Oil Ltd. (http://www.tagoil.com/) is a Canadian-based production and exploration company
with operations focused exclusively in New Zealand. With 100% control over all its core assets,
including oil and gas production infrastructure, TAG is anticipating substantial oil and gas
production and reserve growth through development of several light oil and gas discoveries. TAG
is also actively drilling high-impact exploration prospects identified across more than 2,600
sections of land in the onshore Taranaki and East Coast Basins of New Zealand’s North Island.
In the East Coast Basin, TAG has partnered with Apache Corporation to pursue the significant
unconventional resource potential estimated in the fractured shale source-rock formations. These
oil-rich and naturally fractured formations have many similarities to North America’s Bakken Shale
source-rock formation in the successful Williston Basin.
Contact:
Dan Brown or Garth Johnson, TAG Oil Ltd. 1-604-682-6496
Website: http://www.tagoil.com
Important Information:
“BOEs” may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of 6Mcf: 1 Bbl
is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and
does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are forward-looking
statements that involve various risks and uncertainty affecting the business of TAG Oil. All
estimates and statements that describe Cheal waterflood and Cheal-C1, Cheal-C2 and Cheal-A8
as well as the Company’s objectives, goals, or future plans, including the drilling, completion and
flow testing plans related to the Company’s ten well program at Cheal and Sidewinder located in
the Taranaki Basin of New Zealand, are forward-looking statements under applicable securities
laws and necessarily involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks associated
with oil and gas exploration, development, exploitation, production, marketing and transportation,
volatility of commodity prices, imprecision of reserve estimates, environmental risks, competition
from other producers, and changes in the regulatory and taxation environment. These forward-
looking statements are based on certain factors and assumptions. Consequently, the Company’s
actual results may vary materially from the information provided in this release and there is no
representation by TAG Oil that actual results realized in the future would be the same in whole or
in part as those presented herein.
Additional risk factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those
contained in the forward-looking statements are set forth in, but are not limited to, filings that the
Company and its independent evaluator have made, including the Company’s Annual Information
Form and its most recent reports in Canada under National Instrument 51-101.