NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CANADIAN CORPORATE NEWS
FOR: ASTER VENTURES CORP.
VSE SYMBOL: ASV
AND CURION VENTURE CORP.
VSE SYMBOL: CUV
AND LUCRE VENTURES LTD.
VSE SYMBOL: LVD
AND BERKSHIRE INTERNATIONAL MINING LTD.
VSE SYMBOL: BKR
AND CVL RESOURCES LTD.
VSE SYMBOL: CVL
AND CONSOLIDATED BRADBURY INTL. EQUITIES LTD.
VSE SYMBOL: CBN
AND CURLEW LAKE RESOURCES INC.
VSE SYMBOL: CWQ
AND PAN OCEAN EXPLORATIONS
VSE SYMBOL: POE
AND PRAIRIE PACIFIC ENERGY CORP.
ASE SYMBOL: PRP
NOVEMBER 18, 1999
EKHO Project Commences Operations
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--The EKHO Project consortium of nine
Canadian independent resource and venture capital companies
announce that operator Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co. (TVOG) has begun
site preparation for the first well of its deep oil and gas
exploration play located east of Lost Hills, California and
expects to start rigging up by December 6, 1999 as reported today
by Joseph R. Kandle, TVOG president.
The EKHO Project's first prospect keys off two deep wells,
including the 1972 Tenneco/Great Basins 31X-10, which for a time
held the California depth record at 21,640 feet, and the 1977
Tenneco/Union/Great Basins 66X-3 well, which bottomed at 18,876
feet as America's deepest oil producer according to the February,
1999 issue of World Oil Magazine.
Kandle was vice president and chief engineer for Great Basins
Petroleum from 1972 to 1981 and oversaw the drilling of several
deep, high pressure, high temperature wells, including the 31X-10
and 66X-3, in California's Great Central Valley. The southern
portion is called the San Joaquin Valley and its deeper horizons
are emerging as North America's biggest onshore oil and gas plays
with targets in the billions of barrels of oil and trillions of
cubic feet of gas in place.
TVOG began its quest after purchasing the old Great Basins well
log and map library in 1997 and retained its former president,
Charles Hatten, as a geological consultant. In reviewing the
Great Basins deep plays, TVOG believed that techniques developed
in the ensuing 25 years could overcome adverse downhole conditions
and began leasing land along the trend.
"We are especially emboldened by the downhole information
contained in the logs of the 66X-3 well, which is loaded with oil
and gas shows for an interval exceeding 10,000 feet. Reprocessing
techniques and new studies have further enhanced the prospectivity
of this area," Kandle said.
While Tenneco was the Operator drilling the 66X-3, Kandle was
Great Basins' vice president and chief engineer and is very
familiar with the well and the untested potentials that it
indicates despite its abandonment by Tenneco in 1977. "The whole
deep play is a gift from the major oil companies walking away from
California as an exploration province in the last 25 years,"
Kandle noted.
"We are beginning our Ekho Project about eight miles east of the
Bellevue No. 1 which blew out last year at Middle East rates and
believe we are about 2,000 feet high to that structure," Kandle
said. In 1998, a different group of Canadian and American
companies began drilling a deep test around the Lost Hills
Oilfield, 45 miles northwest of Bakersfield, California. At 17,646
feet the well blew out at initial rates estimated to exceed 100
million cubic feet per day, confirming TVOG concepts about the
potential of huge reserves with high deliverability rates at
depth.
"With our Canadian partners, we are entering the new century and
the new millennium with a bonanza-type international play, smack
in the middle of the premier market of California, the world's
seventh largest economy," says Lynn Blystone, President and CEO,
Tri-Valley Oil and Gas Corp.
/T/
The EKHO Project Consortium:
Company Stock Trading Percentage
Exchange Symbol
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Aster Ventures Corp. VSE ASV 20%
Curion Venture Corp. VSE CUV 20%
Lucre Ventures Ltd. VSE LVD 12%
Berkshire International Mining Ltd. VSE BKR 10%
CVL Resources Ltd. VSE CVL 9.64%
Consolidated Bradbury Intl. Equities Ltd. VSE CBN 5%
Curlew Lake Resources Inc. VSE CWQ 5%
Pan Ocean Explorations VSE POE 5%
Prairie Pacific Energy Corp. ASE PRP 5%
Other Parties 8.36%
/T/
Additionally, seven of the companies that form the EKHO Project
consortium have retained the services of ACC Axis Investor
Relations Corp., a full line communications company. ACC Axis
will devote its efforts toward servicing the retail and brokerage
community.
/T/
The Companies that will be represented by ACC Axis include:
Aster Ventures ASV-VSE
Berkshire Int'l Mining BKR-VSE
Cons. Bradbury Int'l CBN-VSE
Curion Ventures CUV-VSE
Curlew Lake Res. CWQ-VSE
Lucre Ventures LVD-VSE
Prairie Pacific Energy PRP-ASE
/T/
On Behalf of the EKHO Project Consortium
David Patterson, Chairman
The Vancouver Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept
responsibility for the accuracy of this release.
The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of
the information contained herein.
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