VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 11, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Portrush Petroleum Corporation (OTCBB:PRRPF) (TSX-V:PSH) has been advised that the operator has signed a contract to drill a deep well to approximately 10,000 feet on its Mission River project in Texas. It is estimated drilling will commence in mid October.
The Mission River lease is operated by the McAlester Fuel Company ("McFuel") and is located at the south end of the town of Refugio, Refugio County, Texas. The field has multiple pays at depths ranging from 2,000 to 8,500 feet. Portrush has a 10 percent working interest in the field. To date, six wells have been drilled to approximately 6,500 feet, and all six have been placed on production.
Wesley Franklin, consulting geologist for McAlester and recently appointed to the board of Portrush stated, "The operator is interested in an interval from 8,000 to 8,500 feet because of production from three wells in the southwestern part of our lease. A 1937 Sunray well produced 1 BCF of gas from a single pay sand at approximately 8,300 feet. The un-fraced initial production was 12 MMCF/D and 240 BOPD. In addition, slightly shallower sands appear to have been pay from the well log. In 1963, Ginther Warren drilled two producers from the same approximate interval in different fault blocks, each initially producing at rates of 8 MMC/D, and again without any stimulation. They, too, failed to produce other pay sands, electing instead to plug back and re-complete to shallow G-sand reservoirs. These two wells produced 140 MMCF and 156 MMCF. This valuable well control indicates that the structural high at the lower Vicksburg level is in an east-west position under the lower half of our lease, whereas the structural high of the upper Vicksburg, Frio, and Miocene is north of our lease, just west of the town of Refugio."
A deep test would involve setting intermediate casing just above 8,000 feet before the formation pressures start to rise.
Mr. Franklin continued, "Based on the previously drilled deep producers, we anticipate multiple pays in the 8,100 to 8,500 lower Vicksburg. These zones will require fracing, and it is anticipated the zones to produce at 5 MMCF/D or greater and recover 3 to 6 BCF. The deeper interval from 9,000 to 10,000 feet is a bit of a guess, and we have to use analogs from other producing areas in Jackson and Wharton counties, up the Texas coast, closer to Houston. Single Yegua sands typically produce 1 to 2 BCF per sand, but the very best reservoirs produce from 10 to 30 BCF, so this is very attractive exploration. The potential in the deeper Yegua formation below 9,000 feet is an exploration surprise that could establish a whole new play in the part of south Texas."
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