PetroTal Corp. ("PetroTal" or the "Company") (TSX-V: TAL and AIM: PTAL) is pleased to announce that the BN 95-2-2-2XD oil development well (the "well") commenced drilling operations on February 26, 2019.

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Image: Onshore production. Photo: courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

The well is to be completed as a producer in the Vivian formation in the northern portion of the Bretaña structure, progressing the first phase of development of the Bretaña oilfield.  The well will be directionally drilled to 3,040 meters total depth and will take up to 45 days to drill and complete.  The well is the first in a program of three new producers designed to boost production to over 5,000 barrels of oil per day by mid-year 2019.

In addition to the primary objective of completing the well as an oil producer in the Vivian Formation, the drilling plan includes a deeper exploration section to test a secondary objective in the underlying Chonta formation.  The Chonta formation has been a secondary producer of oil in the fields north of Bretaña.

Subsequent to the evaluation of the Chonta formation, the well will be completed as a vertical producer in the Vivian formation and later sidetracked as a horizontal producer when appropriate.  This will also allow us to compare this well’s performance with the existing horizontal producer and the two remaining horizontal completions to be drilled in 2019.

Manolo Zuniga, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“Drilling the second oil producer at the Bretaña oil field is an important step forward as the field development gathers momentum.  The main focus of the drilling campaign is the Vivian formation, which has a gross thickness of approximately 300 feet with 100 feet of oil column at the crest of the structure. The production and pressure data from the initial vertical completion, complemented with the follow up two horizontal oil wells planned for the field in 2019, will aid Netherland Sewell & Associates, Inc., our independent reserves evaluators, to properly determine the size of the oil pool and potential recovery factor.  While the Chonta formation is a deeper pool exploration target, any commercial discovery there will be impactful to the Company.  The Chonta formation has produced commercial quantities of light oil from fields to the north of Bretaña, and a discovery would add synergistic reserves to the Bretaña field.”

Source: Company Press Release