Petro River Oil identifies significant reserve potential with new 3D seismic data
NEW YORK -- Petro River Oil, an independent oil and gas exploration company utilizing the latest 3D seismic technology, announced today that recently acquired and reprocessed 3D seismic data has shown positive results in three of the Company’s project areas located in California and Oklahoma. Given these positive results, the Company now intends to move forward with drilling four wells on these three core assets during the second quarter of this year.
Stephen Brunner, president of Petro River and a member of the board of managers of Horizon Energy commented, “The 3D seismic surveys have allowed Petro River to confirm viable prospects in three of our active project areas. This data improves our understanding of structure, trap type and reservoir characteristics enabling our exploration effort to move forward with more precision and lower exploration risks. If any of the initial wells are successful, numerous additional opportunities for reserve additions and substantial production will be available to Petro River.”
Kern County, Calif.
Petro River has both direct and indirect interests (through its ownership of 20% of Horizon Energy Partners, LLC, in two projects in Kern County, Calif. Kern County is the home to four of the ten largest oil fields in the United States and continues to be an active petroleum producing province.
In the first project, Petro River owns a 13.75% direct working interest and an indirect interest, through Horizon Energy’s ownership of a 27.5% direct working interest in the project. This project involves the re-development of a 100 MMbbl oil field, discovered over 80 years ago, within which the project participants control approximately 4,500 net areas of ideally situated oil and gas leases. This opportunity primarily results from the lack of modern seismic data covering the field.
Recently, Petro River and the other venture participants completed the acquisition of a new, 30-mi2 3D seismic survey over the field. Although this data is still being processed, the initial results are compelling and indicate numerous undrilled, multi-objective potential hydrocarbon-bearing zones within the field. The consensus of the participants is that as much as 25% or more of the current cumulative historical production will be found based on future drilling utilizing the newly acquired 3-D data. An initial exploration well is planned in the late 2nd quarter of 2017. The well depths in the field range from 4,000-8,500 ft and the oil is light, in contrast to many of the “heavy” oil fields nearby. Extensive oil and gas infrastructure is already in place.
The second project in Kern County (in which Horizon Energy owns a 40% working interest) comprises joint venture lease holdings of approximately 8,500 net acres located southwest of Bakersfield, Calif., in the vicinity of prolific Stevens Sand production. Historic production from several nearby fields producing from the same geologic objectives has exceeded 150 million barrels of oil on a cumulative basis.
The results from the processing of a new 24-mi2 3D seismic survey acquired in 2016 provide a clear picture of the extent of a recent, uncompleted discovery and have led to the identification of several other robust exploration opportunities in discrete areas within the lease holdings. An initial exploration/development well is planned in the late second quarter of 2017. The well will target thick hydrocarbon-bearing zones at around 15,000 ft.
Osage County, Okla.
The Pearsonia West Concession in Osage County, Okla., includes 106,500 contiguous acres centered on the structural trend of the Pearsonia-Blackland-Foraker fields. These fields have produced in excess of 20 MMbbl of oil through vertical well development and is close to fields that have produced 200 MMbbl of oil through vertical production since the early 1900s.
The Company recently reprocessed 35 mi2 of 3D seismic data which defined 4,480 acres of structural closures and multiple Pennsylvanian channel and Mississippian chat formations. As a result, Petro River and its operating partners are in the process of securing permits to drill four wells by April 2017. The program will test the first 1,610 acres of the defined structural closure, which has prospective resource potential of 2.5 MMbbl of oil. Results are expected by June 2017.
An additional 55 mi2 of 3D seismic is planned to be shot by the Company in the southern portion of the concession in 2017. Assuming success in the initial drilling phase, the Company anticipates providing scalable and repeatable vertical drilling opportunities within the concession boundaries.
