VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 30, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Montana Oil and Gas, Inc., (Pink Sheets:MOGI) President Peter Sanders is please to announce the following update on its Sylvan Lake project.
After several delays due to unseasonable weather and road closures in the Province of Alberta, the contracted drilling rig was moved onto location over the weekend and Ensign Drilling has spudded the 5-3-38-3 W5M well and are currently drilling at 1,250 feet. Surface casing will be run to 930 feet. This particular drilling rig is known as a telescopic double and is rated to drill to 10,000 feet in depth. Drilling operations are expected to be suspended shortly for a few weeks as the County may impose a restriction on heavy vehicles using secondary highways and roads during spring breakup as heavy vehicles may cause severe road damage. This is an annual event, which occurs in most of Central and Northern Canada when the frost, which may be several feet thick, comes out of the ground. Drilling operations for a large rig such as the Sylvan Lake well requires service by heavy vehicles such as mud, water, cement and vacuum trucks will be prohibited from using the roads during this period of time. Peter Sanders noted, "These road bans that have taken place all over Alberta happen every year and are no surprise, all oil and gas companies are effected by the spring breakup, the positive news is that the Corporation already has the rig on site, which will remain there until drilling is finished, surface casing has been completed and the Company will be ready to finish drilling when road bans are lifted."
The Sylvan Lake Prospect is a well defined 3-D seismic structural high within a preserved Pekisko remnant "island" that may have virgin reservoirs with similar production potential as the adjacent N Pool where 6 wells have produced 680,000 barrels oil since 1997. Overall, the Sylvan Field has produced 40 million barrels of oil from the Pekisko formation and 50 billion cubic feet of gas from the Shunda formation.
Ensign Drilling will test a total of 30 feet from several zones in the Shunda formation at 7,155 feet and a 30-foot Pekisko oil formation at 7,320 feet. When drilling resumes, the hole is planned to reach a total depth of 7,570 feet, which may take some 10 days to then complete drilling and testing.
Each development well has probable production of 150 barrels of oil per day and 750 thousand cubic feet gas per day with reserves in excess of 1 billion cubic feet gas and 300,000 barrels of oil. There are four other pay zones that are prospective for gas. The average well in the Sylvan Lake Field has produced 500 barrels of oil per day and/or over one million cubic feet of gas per day. If successful, the company intends to drill up to 4 more wells on these land sections. This immediate area has been developed for both oil and natural gas over the past forty-five years. Accordingly a multitude of gas gathering and processing facilities and oil transportation facilities have been constructed.
A major gas processing facility is located within two miles of our project with gathering system lines with one half a miles from our proposed drilling location. The capacity of the processing facility is approximately 70 mmcf/d with current throughput of only 46 mmcf/d. accordingly; excess capacity of 24 mmcf/d exists in the facility-which would be in the best interest of the operator to fill as soon as possible.
There is a gas gathering system in the immediate area and oil will be trucked 3 miles to a pipeline terminal. Accordingly, trucking costs would be minimal to get oil product to the transportation system. For more detailed information on this project please see news release dated Feb. 7th, 2005.
Except for statements of historical fact, the information presented herein constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include general economic and business conditions, the ability to acquire and develop specific projects, the ability to fund operations and changes in consumer and business consumption habits and other factors over which Montana Oil and Gas Inc. has little or no control.
For more information, please visit our website www.montanaoil.com
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