North block

Located on the Eastern margin of the Pre-Caspian basin in the Aktobe Oblast in Western Kazakhstan, the North Block covers an area of 2,200 square kilometres and the Northern boundary of the block is located approximately 150 kilometres south of the city of Aktobe.

There are several producing and non-producing oil fields located within the boundary of the block that are operated by international and Kazakh oil companies including Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, Nelson Resources and Transmeridian Exploration Inc.

The exploration contract held by Aral permits exploration for hydrocarbons on the Severniy deposit within a number of portions of blocks.

Within the North Block, Caspian considers the Zhagabulak field as its primary target due to the extent of the Soviet age 2D seismic survey and the existence of significant neighbouring producing oil fields.

Aral re-entered one of the older exploration wells in the East Zhagabulak field and re-perforated and tested the well. The well was put on production in early February 2004 and daily production has remained fairly constant at approximately 500 barrels of light crude oil per day.

The North Block area is serviced by excellent infrastructure, including electrical power lines, a good network of all weather roads and an experienced oil industry work force. The area is crossed by the regional rail oil transportation system and is connected by a new pipeline from Kenkiyak to Atyrau and on to Western European and Russian export markets.