France: Hess-Toreador France shale drilling nears

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 1 – Toreador Resources Corp., Paris, said a drilling rig is to be mobilized within weeks for its proof of concept drilling program that targets the Paris basin Liassic resource play in France.

Hess Oil France SAS, Toreador’s partner, will supervise site and drilling operations. The first two wells will be drilled in the first two quarters of 2011 to total depths of 3,000 m. The wells will be drilled vertically to acquire new data via conventional cores and electric wireline logs.

The first well will be drilled near an earlier well that found two layers in the Liassic shale section and flowed oil. The Liassic is expected at 2,300 m.

Plans for four more wells are to be finalized in the second quarter of 2011, and the wells will be drilled over the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, Toreador is still awaiting the execution and publication of decrees that relate to renewal of the Chateaurenard and Saint-Firmin-des-Bois concessions. On the basis of the prior information provided by French authorities, Toreador continues to believe that they will be renewed retroactively to Jan. 1, 2011.