Well guys here is the news; my comments follow.
Stampede well temporarily shut down
Bearcat Explorations Ltd BEA
Shares issued 78,888,667 2001-07-18 close $0.4
Friday Jul 20 2001 News Release
See Stampede Oils Inc (STF) News Release
Mr. John McLeod reports
Late on Wednesday afternoon the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) contacted Frontier Engineering & Consulting Ltd., engineering consultant to Stampede Oils and Bearcat Explorations, with a verbal directive that the current in-line test operation be shut down immediately. This was a result of a minor oversight relating to the permit for the approximately 200-metre (650-foot) temporary pipeline connecting to the existing Turner Valley oil field gathering system at a wellhead 148 metres southeast of the subject well. The company's former consulting engineers last year had for some reason applied for a short-term permit only, which unfortunately had expired.
Though this type of minor technical oversight does occur in the industry, and is normally expeditiously resolved, the response from the EUB is considered to be fairly severe. Stampede was advised that the reason for this EUB response relates to continuing pressure on the EUB by a local resident objector group for an EUB hearing regarding the company's operational record pertaining to the 2-34 well. The date for the proposed hearing has been tentatively set as Aug. 28-31, 2001. The company will be able to demonstrate that the main allegations are contrived in nature, have no basis in fact and are completely without merit.
The resident who has organized this local objector group was involved closely with the main objector group that opposed a well licence for the planned Stampede TV 11-15-21-3 W5M well, immediately offsetting the IMP Turner Valley 8-21-21-3 W5M discovery well, in 1999. This group was headed by the president of Rio Alto Exploration Ltd. and was able to make use of that company's resources in opposing Stampede's application. Also joining directly and indirectly this objector group to Stampede's licence application at that time were two of the main shareholders of Rio Alto. Stampede is aware that the organizer of the current objector group has been in communication with the president of Rio Alto regarding the current 2-34 operation.
The Stampede Turner Valley 2-34-20-3 W5M well was shut in as of 5 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Subsequent to a meeting with Stampede's solicitors on Thursday morning, a new permit application for a temporary pipeline has been submitted to the EUB, along with a very strong submission by the company's solicitors, setting out the reasons why this suspension directive was definitely not appropriate in this case. Stampede is very hopeful that the in-line test operations will be under way again by Monday.
The current in-line test operation was forced on the company prematurely by the EUB as it "believes that Stampede has been given ample time to clean up the well," despite the determination that an abnormal amount of load fluid had accompanied the injection of a major calcium carbonate pill into the reservoir in November of last year. Though the cleanup operation results had indicated that the load fluid to be recovered from the reservoir was diminishing fairly rapidly it was expected that the first days of the in-line operation would encounter the remaining load fluid still to be recovered from the reservoir. That in fact has been the case and, as expected, the oil flow content is now on the increase.
Although the subject 2-34 well operation is being conducted on a confidential basis related to the release of detailed data, in view of the current situation the following basic oil recovery information may be of interest to shareholders.
Average oil recovery
Day 1 20%
Day 2 40%
Day 3 52% (with slight
oil/sludge emulsion)
Unfortunately the operation was only one-third into day four when it was shut down.
Results to date indicate that the average oil recovery for days four and five should be considerably higher than that of the preceding three days. By the end of the fifth day it is expected that the well should be close to flowing on its own.
Stampede is currently preparing to construct an approximately 880-metre (2,887-foot) permanent flow line from the 2-34 well to the nearby Turner Valley field battery installation. The route has now been surveyed and it is expected that this line should be in place and tied in to the battery during the next two to three weeks. It is intended to place the well on production immediately thereafter.
As stated previously, the company has no reason to downgrade its original expected ultimate production rate.
(c) Copyright 2001 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
It seems to me that this vendetta is for real and probably should be brought to the attention of the popular press, I don't know who Rio Alta are but this type of behavior should not be permitted.
On the plus side the improving oil recovery numbers look good. Anyone with some expertise able to comment?
Later
Keith |
