Dana ups pressure on Koreans with new discovery

Bid target Dana Petroleum's Fin-1X exploration well has discovered a new oil field, in the North Zeit Bay area in the Gulf of Suez, in Egypt. The latest find follows the discovery of the Lorcan oil field last month in the same area, Dana said. Last week, Dana rejected and expressed disappointment with a bid approach from South Korean national oil company KNOC, which indicated it's prepared to pay £18 for each share in the oil explorer, valuing the company at almost £1.7bn. Dana added today that during the drill stem test, the Fin-1X well flowed strongly with high downhole pressures delivering an average flow rate of 1,049 barrels of oil per day, it added. "The Fin discovery together with Lorcan, which flowed at 4,714 barrels of oil per day and was also constrained by the testing equipment, confirms this area will be very attractive to develop," Dana said. The two discoveries have proven up initial reserves of 10-12m barrels of oil and are 100% owned by Dana, the company added.