Amerisur Resources Plc announced an update on operations in the San Pedro block, Paraguay. A seismic acquisition programme has been initiated in the block, which will acquire approximately 416km of new, high quality 2D seismic data over 5 leads. These leads have been developed based on reprocessed legacy seismic and the chemical, gravity and magnetic geotechnical data acquired by Amerisur in 2009, 2011 and 2013.

The leads are associated with multiple stacked reservoirs within the Lima and Santa Helena formations which are of Devonian age. The company currently estimates a potential unrisked Stock Tank Oil Initially In Place (STOIIP) for the Lima formation of 501 million of barrels of oil (MMBO), with unrisked prospective resources of 200 MMBO. The Santa Elena leads are estimated to hold unrisked STOIIP of 1,206 MMBO with unrisked prospective resources of 422 MMBO.

The seismic data will be acquired by Global Geophysical Services using the acquisition technique called Vibroseis. It is expected that the programme will be completed within 60 days followed by processing, integration of the new information into the data set and interpretation over the following three months. The company expects then to select drilling locations with a view to drilling the first new well in San Pedro towards the end of 2014.

The company is currently investigating a number of drilling rig and service options with regional providers.