East West Petroleum Corp. (TSX VENTURE:EW), (the “Company” or “East West”) is pleased to announce that drilling operations have commenced on the first well in its nine well 2013 exploration program in the Taranaki Basin of New Zealand.

The Company’s joint venture partner and operator, TAG Oil Ltd (“TAG”), has commenced drilling operations at the Cheal E-1 well on the Cheal North permit with the Nova-1 rig. Drilling is expected to take up to four weeks to reach a total depth of approximately 2,500 m, following which the rig will stay on site to drill a further four wells testing independent prospects on Cheal North. The wells will be targeting the Miocene aged Mt. Messenger and Urenui formations which have shown to be productive across the Taranaki Basin and on TAG’s adjacent Cheal field.

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