Tri-Valley Corp., which is engaged in oil and natural gas development on its properties in California and which is developing exploration-stage precious minerals at the Company’s gold properties in Alaska, reported today successful completion of an expanded Phase 1 drilling program at its Claflin oil project in Bakersfield at the Edison Oil Field.
The Company has drilled an additional two holes on its way to drilling a total of 22 during 2011 as planned and will be poised once complete to bring the some 2.1M barrels of net proved undeveloped resource to proved, developed and producing status, while continuing to increase oil production. More details about the resource can be found on the Company’s Form 10-K in their annual report (period ended, Dec. 31, 2010) filed with the SEC on Mar. 22, 2011.
President and CEO of TIV, Maston Cunningham, said the Company was well ahead of its proposed schedule for increasing production in 2011, projecting an 800 BOPD production rate by year’s close at Claflin should everything wrap up on time. Cunningham pointed to the recently acquired private placement financing of some $5M, which will fund the Company’s continued development at Claflin and welcomed industry veteran investment fund, Ironman Energy Master Fund, as a major new shareholder in TIV.
The Company is currently busy finalizing the installation of well-site production equipment, tying-in newly drilled wells to existing production facilities and has projected an early May start date for the initial steam injection cycle on the first new well. An additional steam injection cycle is also planned for late July and yet, this timeline may be rapidly advanced, due to new steam injection hardware currently being installed to expand operational capacity.
Initial oil production is slated for June, at which time a 90-day evaluation period will begin, allowing the Company to fully assess the potential/performance of the new wells prior to continued work on the remaining wells to be drilled by year’s end.
Cunningham also commented on a planned 3D seismic acquisition area for the Claflin and adjoining Brea properties, explaining that negotiations with land/mineral owners has taken considerably longer than expected and projecting an early May start for the beginning of the 3D seismic work. Cunningham emphasized the importance of this survey data for the Company’s ongoing exploration and development work in the Claflin/Brea, especially during the horizontal well drilling planned for later this year, where the data will afford markedly better geologic control.
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