Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. announces the commencement of drilling operations on the Hunter No. 1 well on its Starks natural gas and condensate prospect in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Starks is the first exploration prospect to be drilled in Harvest's recently announced Gulf Coast area of mutual interest (AMI) with a private company. The AMI participants have secured a 6,800 acre lease position on the prospect. Mobilization of Helmerich and Payne Rig 137 to the drilling location commenced on August 25 and the well is expected to spud around September 1, 2008.
The Hunter No. 1 is targeted to test a large 3-D seismic amplitude anomaly associated with the geopressured Vicksburg section at a total depth of 12,000 feet. Drilling is anticipated to require about 30 days, and will be followed by a 15-30 day production testing period if warranted. A successful commercial test on this well would result in an appraisal and development drilling program on the discovery, which would likely be undertaken in late 2008 and 2009. The well is being drilled as a tight hole, and therefore no further reports will be made available until testing and evaluation of results is complete.
Harvest President and CEO James Edmiston said, "We are excited to see the initiation of our US drilling activity on the Starks prospect in our Gulf Coast AMI. We have a number of additional ideas and leads within the AMI which will be high-graded if Starks is successful. We anticipate the AMI to be a source of short cycle time exploration and development drilling opportunities over the next few years."
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