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P.O. Box 6870, Edson, AB T7E 1V2
Phone: 780-723-5787; Fax: (780) 723-5725
Published by The Weekly Anchor

April, 2008 Issue
BRIEFS
RUNNING FOX TO TAKE ON ALBERTA OILFIELD
SERVICES COMPANY
Running Fox Resource has entered an
agreement to acquire an Alberta oilfield services company. The Alberta
company brings strong personnel and technical expertise, and a significant
equipment and asset base to Running Fox. This transaction also adds
in-house personnel and specialty equipment capabilities for growth in
Running Fox’s oil and natural gas exploration and production unit. Running
Fox will acquire 100 per cent of the private company and operate it as a
subsidiary.
EAGLE STAR ESTABLISHES COMMERCIAL GAS
PRODUCTION AT PEACE RIVER WELL
Eagle Star Petroleum Corp. has successfully
tested the well located in north western Alberta in the Peace River area.
Following receipt of the test results and
data provided by the Farmee from the recent drilling on its property, a
positive report has been prepared by independent engineers DeGoyler and
MacNaughton Canada Limited (“DGM”) indicating a commercial well which is
scheduled for production early spring of 2008.
The company currently owns a 40 per cent
working interest in the 633 acre Crown lease after payout, with an
overriding royalty of five to 15 per cent, which together with a 10 0per
cent interest in two additional Crown leases in the area, gives the Company
a gross holding of 1,900 acres.
FIELD TEST OF AXE LAKE DISCOVERY ON
SCHEDULE, SAYS OILSANDS QUEST
Oilsands Quest reported that drilling of
thermally completed, injection and observation wells for the reservoir field
test program in the Axe Lake Discovery area is progressing and will continue
as long as weather conditions allow.
On March 16, 2008, two wells for the test
program had been drilled and completed, and a third well was being drilled.
Approximately 18 vertical wells are expected to be drilled on three test
sites. A specialized heavy-duty, truck-mounted drilling rig was contracted
for drilling the test wells. Drilling of these wells is planned to resume
after spring breakup.
The reservoir test program is currently
underway with drilling, coring, logging and well completion activities.
Initial steam injection into the reservoir is expected to commence in the
summer of 2008 upon completion of construction of the facilities.
OILSANDS IDs EXPLORATION TARGETS WITH
SEISMIC PROGRAMS
Oilsands Quest has now completed field work
on the major 3-D and 2-D seismic programs conducted this winter on its
permit lands in Saskatchewan and Alberta. The company is using seismic
survey data as one of the key tools to further define geological structure
and reservoir characteristics within the Axe Lake Discovery area and to
identify exploration targets.
With the arrival of spring and the warming
weather conditions, winter field operations are beginning to wind down.
Following the conclusion of the winter field operations, Oilsands Quest
plans to provide a more comprehensive review of the winter program.
OILSANDS: 18 HOLES INTERCEPT
‘BITUMEN-BEARING’ FORMATION
Oilsands Quest Inc. announces that its Form
10-Q Quarterly Report for the period ended January 31, 2008 was filed
Friday, March 14, 2008. The company also provides an update of the status
of winter field operations on its contiguous oil sands exploration lands in
Saskatchewan and Alberta.
To date, in the first drilling program on
the Alberta side of its contiguous land holdings, Oilsands Quest has drilled
25 exploration holes, 18 of which have encountered meaningful intercepts of
bitumen-bearing McMurray formation.
Reservoir characteristics, including
bitumen saturations, porosities and permeabilities, from the winter drilling
program in both Alberta and Saskatchewan will be determined following
third-party core and laboratory analysis, which normally takes several
months to complete.
L.G.R. SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE ACQUISITION
OF STREAM OIL & GAS
L.G.R. Resources Ltd. reported that at its
annual and special general meeting held on March 11, 2008 the shareholders
approved the company’s acquisition, by way of share exchange, of all of the
issued and outstanding shares of Stream Oil & Gas Ltd. as more particularly
described in the company’s news release of January 15, 2008.
The shareholders also approved a special
resolution to consolidate the company’s issued share capital on a four old
shares for one new share basis in conjunction with the acquisition. Alan T.
Charuk, Ian H. Mann, Lee W. Southern and Daming Yang were elected as
directors of the company pending completion of the acquisition, at which
time all of such directors, except Mr. Southern, will resign and be replaced
by nominees of Stream.
SHELL CEO: ALBERTA TOPS LIST OF NEW
PRODUCTION ‘HEARTLANDS’
Shell is rejuvenating its portfolio for a
world of higher and more volatile commodity prices, increased competition,
and higher costs. As part of the annual review of strategy, Shell said it
is building over 50 large projects that will underpin new cash flows for
decades to come.
Upstream, Shell has over 10 billion barrels
of oil equivalent (boe) resources under construction, which will add
approximately 1 million boe/d of production.
Major investments underway include
investment in some 10 billion boe of resources that will deliver
approximately one million boe/d of oil & gas, and are the foundation for
long-term growth potential of two to three per cent/year; 60,000 b/d of oil
sands capacity, an increase of more than 60 per cent from today’s levels;
and over seven million tones per year of new liquefied natural gas (LNG)
capacity, an increase of 50 per cent.
NORDIC ADOPTS SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS PLAN
Donald Benson, chairman and chief executive
officer of Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. has announced that the corporation has
adopted a shareholder rights plan, effective March 17.
The rights plan is designed to ensure the
fair treatment of shareholders in any transaction involving a change of
control of Nordic and will provide the board of directors and shareholders
with more time to evaluate any unsolicited take-over bid and, if
appropriate, to seek out other alternatives to maximize shareholder value.
The rights plan was not adopted by Nordic
in response to any specific proposal to acquire control of Nordic and the
board of directors is not aware of any such proposal. Although the rights
plan takes effect immediately, shareholders will be asked to confirm the
Rights Plan at the upcoming annual and special meeting of shareholders. The
Rights Plan would then be in effect for a three-year period from the date of
shareholder confirmation.
PETROMIN TO BEGIN ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT
DRILLING NEAR ELLERSLIE DISCOVERY
Petromin Resources Ltd. will commence
additional development drilling on its lands in the Gilby area of Central
Alberta.
The new location will be drilled midway
between its producing lower Ellerslie well which is currently producing
approximately 500 mcf per day and a new lower Ellerslie gas discovery
currently producing at an average rate of 2.88 mmcf per day.
The new location which is planned to
commence within a month is directly offset by a gas pipeline. Petromin
retains a 16.666 per cent working interest in the new location.
CANADA ENERGY PARTNERS, CREW ENERGY
ENTER JV
Canada Energy Partners Inc. has entered
into a joint venture agreement with Crew Energy Inc. to explore the Montney/Doig
Formation on Canada Energy’s Peace River Project and Moberly Prospect in
northeast British Columbia.
Canada Energy’s lands are located in an
area prospective for the Montney/Doig Formation which has recently gained
market attention as a result of successful commercial results.
The joint exploration program between
Canada Energy and Crew Energy will cover 55 sections (approximately 35,500
acres) of lands held by Canada Energy. Crew Energy will operate the project
and will earn a 50 per cent working interest in the subject lands upon
completion of the exploration program. The initial program is expected to
consist of a three-dimensional seismic project over the majority of the
Peace River lands and the drilling of five exploratory wells. This program
will commence immediately and is currently anticipated to be completed by
March 31, 2009.
ARCAN INCREASES REVOLVING CREDIT
FACILITY TO $36 MILLION
Arcan Resources has entered into an
agreement with its bank lender, Alberta Treasury Branches, to increase the
amount available under its revolving operating credit facility from $25
million to $36 million.
Pursuant to the terms of the amalgamation
of Arcan with Desco Energy Ltd. on January 1, 2007, each former Desco
shareholder received one Performance Share as a portion of the consideration
for each Desco common share held at the time of the amalgamation. Pursuant
to the provisions of the performance shares, such shares will, on November
1, 2008, be either redeemed and cancelled or converted into a fraction of an
Arcan common share (to a maximum of 0.20380435 of a common share for each
Performance Share) depending on the volume of oil and natural gas reserves
at the company’s Hamburg property effective June 30, 2008.
EXCEED SCHEDULES COMPLETION OF NISKU GAS
WELL
Exceed Energy’s 4-17-47-10W5M well that was
spudded on February 14, 2008, was cased as a standing Nisku gas well on
March 10, 2008.
Exceed has commenced pipelining operations
which it expects will be completed before break-up. Completion of the well
is scheduled to commence in the coming weeks.
The company has completed its five well
shallow gas drilling program in northern Alberta for this winter. Since the
company’s last update on February 27, 2008, the final two wells in the
program have been drilled and cased as potential gas wells in the Mannville
and Wabamun zones. Exceed expects to begin completion operations on both
wells on March 24, 2008. Tie-in and pipelining of the successful wells in
the program will commence in the coming weeks.
UNITECH ENERGY COMPLETES SPECIAL WARRANT
CONVERSION
Unitech Energy reported that to fund the
drillout and completion of the Keg River test well and earn additional
working interests, Unitech completed a non-brokered private placement in
December, 2007 of $15,000,000 special warrants at a price of $0.09 per
special warrant for gross proceeds of $1,350,000.
The terms provided that they would be
converted into a variable number of common shares dependent on a reserves
and valuation of the test well.
The terms of the special warrants
specifically provided that if the valuation provided a value of the test
well at less than three BCF, the total number of common shares issued (on a
pro rata basis) upon conversion of the Special Warrants would be 3,218,389
common shares.
BUFFALO ENTERS DRILLING JOINT VENTURE
Buffalo Resources Corp. has executed a
non-binding letter of intent with Ionic Capital Corp. of Vancouver, British
Columbia in connection with a proposed Canadian drilling joint venture
between Buffalo and certain investment vehicles to be formed for the
purposes of participating in the joint venture.
This joint venture will allow Buffalo to
exploit its large asset base and inventory of existing drilling
opportunities more efficiently. Buffalo and the participants will commit up
to $40 million for the purposes of completing a drilling program on certain
of Buffalo’s properties over the next 12 months, allowing the company to
significantly expand the level of activity previously forecast.
HARVEST’S YEAR-END RESERVES INCREASE TO
220.9 MILLION
Harvest Energy announced a summary of its
2007 year end reserves information.
Through successful drilling, optimization
and acquisition activities, year-end 2007 Proved plus Probable (“P+P”)
reserves have increased to 200.9 million barrels of oil equivalent (“mmboe”)
(2006-219.9 mmboe).
Harvest has successfully replaced
approximately 104 per cent of our 2007 production on a P+P basis through
acquisition and positive additions from a capital program, including 5.7
mmboe of additions related to the enhanced recovery programs at Wainwright,
Bellshill and Suffield.
Proved developed producing reserves
continue to represent a high percentage (approximately 85 per cent) of total
proved reserves. Total proved reserves represent approximately 70 per cent
of total P+P reserves.
BAYTEX ENERGY TRUST BUMPS UP PRODUCTION
AVERAGES FOR Q4
Baytex Energy Trust reported that
production averaged 39,304 boe/d during the fourth quarter compared to
38,094 for the third quarter of this year.
The fourth quarter volume includes 460 boe/d
of under-accrued production from the previous quarter. The average
production for the second half of 2007, reflecting the acquisition of the
assets at Pembina and Lindbergh completed at the end of June, was 38,698 boe/d.
At Pembina, production averaged 5,124 boe/d
during the second half of 2007, exceeding the 3,500 boe/d production level
at the announcement of this acquisition in May of this year. Battery and
compression modifications conducted since the purchase have increased
operational reliability, which, together with improved industry cooperation,
have contributed to production from this area exceeding expectations.
TEACHING AN OLD ZONE NEW TRICKS:
PRODUCTION STARTS AT PELAHATCHIE
TransAmerican Energy Inc. has been advised
by the operator that it has completed the recently drilled Max & Martha Gill
#1 well in Pelahatchie Field in the prolific 11,300 ft. Hosston Formation.
Testing with swab rig initially resulted in estimated fluid entry rates
exceeding 200 barrels of oil per day, which is the indicated rate that the
well could be pumped. Placed on a 12/64s size wellhead choke, the well has
been flowing naturally at the rate of 80-115 barrels of oil daily with no
formation water indicated and flowing tubing pressure of 100 to 180 psi.
Presently the drilling location is having all drilling mats, etc. removed
and the site graveled so that a pumping unit can be installed once the well
has finished flowing naturally.
The operator advised that, drilled to
11,500 ft. subsurface in Sec 7 T5N R5E, the Gill well encountered numerous
potential productive zones beginning at the Tuscaloosa depositions in the
7000 ft. depth through the multiple Hosston formations at the 11,000 ft.
zones. These stacked “Pay zones” will now become future offset
developmental drilling targets.
FIRST CALGARY NOMINATES FOUR NEW
DIRECTORS TO BOARD
First Calgary Petroleums Ltd. announced the
nomination of four new directors for election to the company’s board of
directors, in addition to the appointment of a new non-executive chairman,
H. Garfield Emerson Q.C., as per the company’s previous announcement.
The new nominees include one executive and
three non-executive directors. The new nominees offer an extensive
combination of financial, political, regional and industry experience. This
experience will prove to be invaluable to First Calgary and its shareholders
as the company focuses on moving forward with its strategy of developing its
Algerian assets and looking for additional exploration opportunities.
David Savage, M.B.A., the company’s chief
financial officer, has been proposed to move to an executive position on
First Calgary’s Board. This reflects, among other aspects, the extremely
valuable role he has played in continuing the financing process since
joining First Calgary, initially on an interim basis in August of 2007 and
then as CFO.
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For Advertising, Subscriptions or Information Please
Contact:
P.O. Box 6870, Edson, AB T7E 1V2
Phone: 780-723-5787; Fax: (780) 723-5725
Published by The Weekly Anchor