Global Energy Development, the Latin America focused petroleum exploration and production company, announces that it has relinquished its Panamanian Garachine Contract by mutual consent with the Panamanian government with immediate effect.

The relinquishment is in line with the terms of the Contract, which allowed for relinquishment of the Contract by the Company after successful completion of the work commitments of each phase. The Panamanian government has duly given its consent to allow the Contract to be formally relinquished following the completion of the Phase 1 work commitments.

The Contract was purely exploratory in nature, accounting for none of the Company's independently audited reserves, and did not feature within the Company's recently announced Three Year Plan which consists predominately of developmental drilling. As such it was deemed non-core and a decision was taken by the Company to relinquish the Contract and focus expenditures elsewhere within the Company's portfolio that form part of the Plan.

Garachine Contract

The contract was signed in June 2007 and was the first operations contract which The Ministry had signed since 1990. The Contract area covers 691,500 acres located wholly offshore in shallow water with a maximum depth of only 140 feet and an estimated average water depth of approx. 70 feet. The area covered by the Contract was previously held by the Company under a Technical Evalution Agreement (TEA).

Global believed that the Contract area had. substantial exploration potential in an untested Mid Miocene carbonate play. The play is analogous to productive Miocene carbonates in Colombia as well as classic reef discoveries in Southeast Asia.

Source: energy-pedia