LONDON (Alliance News) - Northcote Energy Ltd and Red Rock Resources PLC Thursday revealed they expect their partner to begin drilling the Lutcher Moore-21 well on the Shoats Creek field in the US in the middle of May.
Both companies outlined the work programme for the field, which is in Louisiana, in early February, but have now said the operator of the field, Shoats Creek Development Inc, will begin drilling the Lutcher Moore-21 well on May 16.
The well will be a twin to Lutcher Moore-8, which was originally drilled in 1950 and initially produced 185 barrels of oil per day and 185 million cubic feet of gas a day when it was completed.
That will be the first of three new wells to be drilled on the field this year, which will all target a depth of around 5,500 feet to test multiple Frio sands that lie around 5,000 feet underground.
The operator will also re-enter the existing Cockfield well and install equipment to support production from the well, and convert an existing well bore into a second salt water disposal well to increase its salt water disposal capacity and allow the existing disposal well to be made redundant.
Negotiations will also begin regarding a natural gas contract that will permit sales of the gas from the field, and certain equipment will also need to be installed.
The project partners also plan to lease an additional 500 to 700 gross acres of land to expand the project area and to provide more drilling locations for the future.
Northcote Thursday said its net share of costs will be around USD500,000, but said it is carried on certain items, meaning that requirement falls to around USD300,000, which will be funded by existing resources.
Northcote shares were up 26% to 0.0599 pence per share on Thursday morning.
Red Rock said its share of the costs is around USD495,132, and said it will fund that from the proceeds of disposals, cash flows, and cash resources.
Red Rock shares were down 2.6% to 0.389 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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