By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 21 -- Canadian Imperial Venture Corp. in St. John's, Newf., completed the commissioning of existing facilities and was granted all necessary approvals and permits to begin production of oil and natural gas from its Garden Hill field in western Newfoundland "on or before" Tuesday, officials said.
The production lease issued to the company in late April by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador was the first ever for onshore operations in that province. The lease covers 33,000 acres along a prospective fault-bounded inversion fairway on the Port au Port Peninsula and includes the Port au Port No. 1 discovery well.
The initial term of the lease is 10 years, but it can be extended for one or more 5-year terms.
Recent well testing during the commissioning and hookup phase indicated that additional recompletion of the discovery well would improve production. Canadian Imperial Venture did the necessary engineering and contracted Schlumberger Ltd. to do the recompletion. Schlumberger was scheduled to start that job this past Saturday and to complete it within 2 or 3 days.
Meanwhile, Canadian Imperial Venture said it closed a debt restructure agreement that effectively changes the status of participating creditors from unsecured to secured.