Sefton Resources has completed the drilling of three of the four new wells planned at Tapia. The last well, Hartje #20, will be drilled once the relevant documentation has been approved by the Los Angeles County Planning office, which is now expected in the New Year.

The drilling of the wells, Yule #9RD, Yule #12, and Hartje #19, have been completed with a gravel packed stainless steel wire-wrapped screen liner inserted across the oil zone. Approximately 40 feet of Yule oil zone was encountered in the Hartje #19 well, located in the North Western portion of the oilfield.

During the drilling process of the Hartje #19 well, 30 feet of oil sand was cored from which approximately 27 feet was recovered. The core from Hartje #19 well is currently being analysed by CoreLab in Bakersfield, California, along with the core collected in the Yule #12 well in November, and will be used by Petrel Robertson Consulting to upgrade the geologic model for input into in the steam flood modelling being undertaken by Dr Farouk Ali, a specialist in reservoir engineering, oil recovery and simulation.

Whilst a permit from the California Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources was in place for the Hartje #20 well, the Company is still awaiting final permit clearance from the Los Angeles County Department of Planning which had previously raised concerns in connection with the proximity of the well to nearby oak trees and the impact of the drilling to significant ridgelines in the area.

The Company has provided the Department of Planning with detailed information to show that these concerns are unfounded. Permitting through LA County Planning has never taken longer than 90-days for all of our other Tapia well drilling programs in the past. The permitting timeline for this well is now approaching six months. However, the Board is confident that the Hartje #20 well will receive final approval from the County in the New Year once all our support documentation has been reviewed.

Following the successful drilling of the three new wells, the Company has plans to bring a workover rig on site during the first quarter of 2012 to carry out down the hole repairs on three existing wells. These include replacing the corroded liners with stainless steel in Hartje #14 and #17 wells, and re-completing the Hartje #6 well in the existing zone or in a slightly deeper, fault-repeated Yule oil sand section. Once completed and these wells come back into production, they will also contribute to an overall increase in the level of oil produced at Tapia.

Cyclic steaming is expected to resume at wells, Yule #5 and Hartje #12, in the next few weeks and pumps are being installed on all the newly drilled wells in order to maximise the primary oil production at the earliest date. Oil flow lines and production manifolds have already been constructed and installed and it is expected that all the Yule wells will be producing before the end of December 2011. Wells, Hartje #13, #15, and the newly drilled well #19, are expected to go in to production in early January.

Tags: Sefton Resources