Morocco
Circle Oil subsidiary Circle Oil Maroc Ltd. (COML) signed an agreement with Morocco’s Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) for the 269 sq km Sebou Concession in the Rharb basin.
Under the agreement, COML will gather 3D seismic data before starting a six-well drilling program in 2007.
New Brunswick
Corridor Resources Inc., Halifax, NS, purchased the 50% working interest it didn’t own in two leases totaling 59,073 net acres in the Elgin subbasin east of McCully gas field.
Seller is Columbia Natural Resources Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City. Corridor plans to start a 2D seismic survey on the leases this summer.
Meanwhile, Corridor drilled the McCully J-66 well to 2,600 m MD and cut 46 m of indicated net gas pay in the Hiram Brook formation. That included 15 m in the A sand, 19 m in the B sand, and the rest in the C and D sands. It was moving the rig to drill the E-57 location.
Quebec
Three Quebec independents plan an extended test at a well in the Gaspe area that peaked during a 15-day test at 34 b/d of 47° gravity sweet oil and 36 Mcfd of gas from a 139-m thick zone at 950.5-1,090 m.
The new 90-day production test follows a 45-day shut-in period at the Petrolia-Haldimand-1 well, which was perforated in a net 22 m at eight levels in the producing zone. Another 180 days of analysis will follow.
Participants in the well are Petrolia Inc., Rimouski, and Junex Inc., Ste-Foy, each 45% and Gastem Inc, Montreal, 10%.
California
Foothills Resources Inc., Bakersfield, plans to drill two wells this summer in Grizzly Bluff gas field in Humboldt County southeast of Eureka in the Eel River basin.
Foothills Christiansen 3-15 is projected to 4,300 ft. The location is 800 ft south of the Forexco Christiansen 1R-15, which has produced 400 MMcf of gas since going on line in early 2004.
Foothills Vicenus 1-3 is projected to 5,900 ft at a spot 1 mile west of Foothills Christiansen 3-15. This location is also 1,000 ft southeast of a well drilled in 1964 that tested 2.5 MMcfd. Vicenus 1-3 will test deeper zones and the same zones as the abandoned well, which never produced commercially.
Grizzly Bluff field is producing about 500 Mcfd of gas, the company said (OGJ, May 10, 2004, p. 34).
Mississippi
Exploration for gas in Mississippian Floyd shale is planned in northeastern Mississippi.
David H. Arrington Oil & Gas Inc., Midland, Tex., plans to drill a horizontal wildcat to the shale at 6,000 ft in Lowndes County. The surface location is in 18-17s-17w, 5 miles northeast of Columbus, Miss., reports Southeastern Oil Review, Jackson, Miss.
Washington
Cascadia Energy Corp., a subsidiary of Torrent Energy Corp., Seattle, signed a lease option agreement with Pope Resources LP on coal acreage in Cowlitz and Lewis Counties north of Portland, Ore.
The agreement gives Cascadia the right to earn oil and gas leases of up to 15,280 acres of mineral rights interests held by Pope.
The lands are in the general area where Cascadia in 2005 signed a similar lease option agreement that covered 100,000 acres held by a forest products company.
Including state trust lands covering another 15,000 acres, Cascadia has a direct exploration lease land potential of more than 130,000 acres.
Cascadia and its 40% joint venture partner, St. Helens Energy LLC of Colorado, a subsidiary of Comet Ridge USA Inc., plan to drill as many as four exploratory or stratigraphic wells this year to test various coals for thickness, gas content, and predictability.