HOUSTON, June 13, 2011
/PRNewswire/ -- Harvest Natural
Resources, Inc. (NYSE: HNR) today announced that it has encountered oil
in the wildcat well Dussafu Ruche Marin-1 (DRM-1) drilled in the Dussafu
Marin PSC, in the offshore waters of Gabon, West Africa.
� Harvest operates the Dussafu PSC, holding a 66.667 percent interest.
� The well was spudded on April 28 and
is being drilled to test the potential of the pre-salt Gamba and Dentale
Formations.
Drilled
with the Transocean Sedneth 701 semi-submersible drilling unit in 380 feet of
water, the DRM-1 well has reached a vertical depth of 9,953 feet within the
Upper Dentale Formation. � Log evaluation, pressure data and samples
indicate that Harvest has discovered approximately 55 feet of pay in a 90
foot oil column within its primary objective, the Gamba Formation.
Additional
technical evaluation will be required to appraise this Gamba discovery.
� Forward plans include deepening the well to test Middle and Lower
Dentale exploration potential and sidetracking to appraise the extent of the
Gamba oil discovery.
Harvest
will provide an update on the drilling operations in due course.
About Harvest
Natural Resources
Harvest Natural Resources, Inc.,
headquartered in Houston, Texas,
is an independent energy company with principal operations in Venezuela,
exploration assets in the United States,
Indonesia, West Africa,
China and Oman and
business development offices in Singapore
and the United Kingdom.
For more information visit the Company's website at www.harvestnr.com.
CONTACT:
Stephen
C. Haynes
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
(281) 899-5716
This
press release may contain projections and other forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. They include estimates and timing
of expected oil and gas production, oil and gas reserve projections of future
oil pricing, future expenses, planned capital expenditures, anticipated cash
flow and our business strategy. All statements other than statements of
historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. Although Harvest
believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements
are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to
have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from Harvest's
expectations as a result of factors discussed in Harvest's 2010 Annual Report
on Form 10-K and other public filings.
SOURCE Harvest
Natural Resources, Inc.