By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 17 -- A unit of Torrent Energy Corp., Vancouver, BC, took an option on a large acreage block held by a major forest products company in southwestern Washington.
Cascadia Energy Corp. has the option to select 100,000 acres from an overall 365,000-acre block in the Cedar Creek area in Lewis, Cowlitz, and Skamania counties between Tacoma, Wash., and Portland, Ore. Cascadia has a 2-year right of refusal on the rest of the block.
Cascadia paid an initial $100,000 and committed to a work program based on the number of acres selected for further exploration.
Cascadia also formed a joint venture with St. Helens Energy LLC, a 100% owned subsidiary of Comet Ridge Ltd., Perth, an Australian coal seam gas explorer. St. Helens Energy will operate the Washington project with 40% interest.
The option acreage lies across the Columbia River from Mist field, in Columbia County, Oregon's only productive field, which produced gas from Eocene pays at 3,000 ft. Washington State has no oil or gas production.
Torrent is drilling coalbed methane exploration wells in the Coos Bay basin of southwestern Oregon, where it holds more than 70,000 acres (OGJ Online, Aug. 4, 2005).
