Westbridge Energy (WEB-V) and Black Pearl Holdings LLC May 26, '14 will be collaborating on an unconventional wet gas play in southern Texas. This new project is called the Frigate Island Project. Westbridge and Black Pearl intend to source strategic and financial partners to partake in the leasing, exploration and development of the Frigate Island Project. This project represents one of the latest initiatives of Westbridge and Black Pearl and is indicative of the more than 500 leads and prospects identified as part of the joint venture and planned merger between the companies. Discussions have commenced with multiple potential partners and formal proposals are anticipated in the near term.
Unconventional gas plays are highly attractive to industry participants and Westbridge and Black Pearl believe the Frigate Island Project makes an excellent addition to the current portfolio of assets.
Frigate Island Project
The Frigate Island Project is located in southern Texas and is based upon the recent innovations in horizontal drilling and fracking. The project area is approximately 6,000 to 8,000 acres with the play potentially extending for 150 to 200 miles. The project area has both 2D and 3D seismic data as well as previously drilled vertical wells which penetrated the targeted interval. The wells planned for the project will be drilled to 5,500' vertically and then 2,500' laterally with staged fracking of the lateral reservoir interval. These wells will target the Lower Yegua interval, a well-known producing formation in the Gulf Coast of the United States.
The geologic setting for the Lower Yegua is that of an offshore bar / barrier island. These offshore bars contain sands which were deposited on a stable platform created by a deep-seated shale ridge. Longshore currents reworked these sands over the shale ridge. The reworked section is made up of 1 inch to 2 feet thick lenticular sands interbedded in shale. These sands are known to have excellent reservoir characteristics. The proposed wells will be designed to commingle all these highly laminated sand lenses through horizontal drilling and fracking of the Lower Yegua interval.
There are two unique aspects to this project: 1. Due to the deep-seated shale ridge, the objective section is over- pressured. This will help contribute to higher initial production rates and enhanced well recoveries; and 2. The objective section is hydrocarbon bearing throughout with no known water section (other than shale bound water).
To the south of the prospective area, lies an analog field. This field is productive from the same Lower Yegua interval that will be targeted by the proposed horizontal wells. This field has produced over 54.6 billion cubic feet of gas and 950 thousand barrels of condensate and is still actively producing.
Corporate Update
Westbridge and Black Pearl are currently producing oil and gas from the Bivens Field in southwest Louisiana. Once the production numbers have fully stabilized, Westbridge and Black Pearl will update the market with the flow rates from the recently completed workovers.
Westbridge and Black Pearl are also making progress towards completing a definitive agreement and the requisite filings to complete the merger of the companies. Formal updates with be forthcoming in this regard.
Management Commentary
Mr. Tosan Omatsola, President and CEO of Westbridge, comments: "Westbridge and Black Pearl believe the Frigate Island Project is an excellent complement to our existing portfolio of conventional oil and gas plays in the United States. Our management team is also highly focused on executing a value creating strategy in the near term, including the completion of the merger with Black Pearl, attracting partners for our various projects and drilling multiple exploration and development wells."
Mr. Michael Looney, President and CEO of Black Pearl, comments: "The Frigate Island Project has multiple unique attributes attractive to industry participants. In coordination with several technical consultants and nearby operators, we have assembled a large amount of technical data and continue to define and design the optimal project plan. We look forward to completing our planned merger with Westbridge and assuming an active role in the combined entity."
Further information on the Frigate Island Project can be found in Westbridge's corporate presentation available at: www.westbridgeweb.com |
