bakersfield.com
Trimark Oil & Gas stock rises as gas well nears completion
Filed: 10/06/99
By Gene Laverty
c.1999 Bloomberg News
Vancouver, Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) ? Trimark Oil & Gas Ltd. shares rose as much as 29 percent on investor confidence about a promising natural-gas well in California.
Shares in the Vancouver-based petroleum company rose C$0.48
(US$0.30) to C$2.29 in midafternoon Vancouver trading of 754,949 shares, more than seven times the three-month average of 107,278. Earlier the shares touched a 52-week high of C$2.38.
The company owns a 4 percent stake in a well being drilled in the San Joaquin basin, near Bakersfield, California. Cannaccord Capital Corp. analyst Jeffrey Fiell in Calgary, Alberta, said Trimark and its partners are preparing to complete the well.
"They've got to the top part of the formation and there's lots of gas," Fiell said. He said drilling would resume tonight or tomorrow.
A well drilled at the same site late last year exploded and the subsequent fire took more than five months to bring under control, leading to speculation that Trimark and its partners had tapped into a massive pool of gas.
Berkeley Petroleum Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, holds the largest share of the well at 40 percent. The other partners are Elk Point Resources Inc.; Hilton Petroleum Ltd., Kokaburra Resources Ltd., Paramount Resources Ltd., PYR Energy Corp. and Richland Petroleum Corp.
Hilton Petroleum, which owns 17 percent of Trimark's stock, rose C$0.59, or 13 percent, to C$4.99 in Vancouver trading. |
