OREGON LEASING RETURNS; MORE MIST DRILLING SET
Interest in Oregon is focused on two oil and gas lease auctions involving acreage in Columbia and Clatsop counties.
Meanwhile, more drilling is scheduled in Oregon's Mist gas field area on behalf of Nahama & Weagant Energy Co. (N&W), Bakersfield, Calif. N&W is the leaseholder in Oregon's Mist gas field on a farmout from ARCO Oil & Gas Co.
Oregon Natural Gas Development Co. (ONGD), a subsidiary of Northwest Natural Gas Co. and a partner with N&W at Mist field, has applied to the state for five new permits to drill at Mist on behalf of N&W.
LEASING RETURNS
The Columbia County auction of leases on 120 tracts covering 46,068 acres was the first in the county since 1988.
The auction drew three bids on behalf of N&W at the minimum bonus bid of $2.50/acre for 676.76 acres in three tracts in the area in which the driller has its ARCO farmout.
The Oregon Division of State Lands will offer leases in Salem May 6 on 897 acres in Clatsop County. N&W had drilled a dry hole in this area several years ago, and the company now may have indications of better prospects for producing gas there.
The Bakersfield company was a leading participant in earlier Oregon auctions during the 1980s and generally was high bidder. The company no longer holds any leases taken in those years.
N&W was successful in its initial drilling at Mist field late in 1990, but it has yet to spud in its first well of 1991. It plans to drill at least 10 holes this year under its agreement with ARCO.
There is also a possibility of a third auction later in the year, this one at Olympia, Wash.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources last August invited lease applications and said an auction would be held in 1991 if warranted.
The Washington Lands Division disclosed that until now interest has been small but sufficiently strong to consider a sealed bid auction. A decision is expected in a few weeks.
FEES, FINES POSSIBLE
The Oregon Department of Geology and Minerals (Dogami) has been slow to present the state legislature with a proposed bill providing for fines for violating reclamation laws.
The fines of $200/day to $50,000/day would be levied for violation "of certain provisions (of the law) relating to reclamation of mining lands, mineral exploration, conservation of gas and oil, and geothermal resources."
Dogami also plans to seek legislation requiring nonrefundable fees, not to exceed $250, for each application for a permit.
The legislation would require the permittees to pay a nonrefundable fee not to exceed $500/year on the anniversary of the issuance date of the permit. There will only be one extension of the permit.
GEOTHERMAL PLANS
California Energy Co. (CEC), San Francisco, a leader in geothermal exploration in Oregon the past several years, has run into one more environmental roadblock.
This one involves drilling efforts in the Newberry Crater area of Oregon.
Drilling will be delayed by a new demand for an environmental impact statement to be prepared this time by the U.S. Forest Service. Earlier there had been an environmental assessment, which is not as extensive as the required EIS, according to a U.S. Forest Service source.
Of more importance, perhaps, to future CEC activity was the disclosure a few weeks ago that a "definitive agreement" had been signed with Kiewit Energy Co., Omaha, for joint development of geothermal energy sources "and other clean power technologies" (OGJ, Mar. 4, p. 18).
Development of recently acquired geothermal properties in Nevada and Utah will be the initial joint venture, it was announced.
Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.