Latin American-focused President Energy has successfully drilled a proof of concept well which establishes a hydrocarbon province in Devonian source rock in the Pirity Basin onshore in Paraguay.

Announcing the results from its operated drilling program, President the PE-PY-J x1 Jacaranda well confirms that the prolific Devonian petroleum system of southeast Bolivia and northwest Argentina extends into the Pirity Basin in Paraguay.

Jacaranda was the first in a three-well program and was drilled to a depth of 4,500 m (14,760 ft) and encountered more than 800 m (2,624 ft) of live Devonian source rock within an oil and gas condensate window, and high quality reservoir sands were found with 20% porosity, above source rock, but there was no seal in the primary target, President disclosed in a London Stock Exchange statement. Inflows of gas into the wellbore were detected, President said, and hydrocarbon show of methane and petane indicated liquid generation.

In addition, a potential gas condensate reservoir has been identified below the target depth and the well has been suspended for future re-entry.

President said the well extended 300 m (984 ft) deeper than planned and noted that it was the first deep well to be drilled in Paraguay for 30 years, in a remote location without any in-country oil field infrastructure. Next, President is to drill two more targets, Lapacho and Tapir.