Petro Matad Limited announced that the Velociraptor-1 exploration well in the Taats Basin of Block V located in central Mongolia spudded on 13 June, 2023. The well is the first on the Raptor Trend of prospects located 7km south of the Snow Leopard-1 well drilled in 2018 that proved a working petroleum system in the Taats Basin. Velociraptor-1 is targeting an inversion anticline prospect estimated to have 200 million barrels (MMbo) of Mean Prospective Recoverable Resourcepotentialand is planned to drill to a total depth ("TD") of circa 1,500 metres.

The well is expected to take circa 30 days to reach TD and encouraging results in the Velociraptor prospect would significantly de-risk two adjacent prospects on the Raptor Trend which together have Mean Prospective Recoverable Resource potential of an additional 375 MMbo.