News

July 29, 2010

Po Valley Energy Plans New Castello Well As Field Reserves Suffer Downgrade

Shares in Po Valley Energy slumped in April when the ASX-listed Italian gas producer revealed an unexpected pressure drop at its flagship Castello gas field. The share price has yet to recover and was dealt a further blow on Monday when Po Valley Energy revealed that 2P reserves at Castello have been almost halved, from 6.3 billion cubic feet of gas to 3.66 bcf, a downwards revision of 42 per cent.

This is a major disappointment for the company and its backers.  The Castello field near Milan was brought onstream in December 2009, the culmination of a protracted development process that saw the company endure years of bureaucratic delays while the Italian authorities signed off the regulatory changes for the first new gas plant since the liberalisation of the Italian gas market in 1998.  The commissioning of the production facilities was a landmark moment, both for Italy as a...