BNV-Norstra deal sets Montana gas drilling

June 25, 2014
Privately held BNV Energy LLC, Houston, has entered an agreement with Norstra Energy Inc., Spokane, to drill two natural gas wells and build a related gathering system to earn a 60% working interest in 5,382 acres in Northwest Montana.

Privately held BNV Energy LLC, Houston, has entered an agreement with Norstra Energy Inc., Spokane, to drill two natural gas wells and build a related gathering system to earn a 60% working interest in 5,382 acres in Northwest Montana.

The agreement calls for BNV to spend $1.5 million for the drilling and gathering work in Lewis and Clark County and to complete the projects by Sept. 30. It provides for an extension until June 15, 2015, for the second well.

The BNV working interest is to come out of the 80% working interest acquired by Super Nova Petroleum, Vancouver, BC, in a farmout from Norstra in January covering about 10,000 acres in what Norstra calls its Milford Colony Project. That area includes the acreage covered by the BNV agreement and is close to the Northwestern Energy gas pipeline system.

Norstra retains a 20% carried interest.

BNV, after depositing $400,000 in a drilling escrow account, will receive 4 million warrants to buy Norstra stock.

Norstra characterized the deal as part of a shallow gas play developing along with the Bakken oil play on the Rocky Mountain front.

“We were and are a company very interested in the deeper oil in the Bakken formation,” explained Glen Landry, chief executive officer. “But the potential natural gas in Lewis and Clark County cannot be ignored, with its several hundred feet of pay through two separate sand formations reaching depths of almost 5,000 ft.”