Tri-Valley Corporation has "spudded" its first well on its Pleasant Valley Project in the Oxnard, California oilfield. The target is the Upper Vaca Tar Sand, California's version of the Canadian Athabasca tar sands.

"Unlike the Canadian tar sands, which typically occur in stringers on the order of 60 feet in thickness, the Upper Vaca Tar Sands are as thick as 500 feet and sit in the midst of one of the world's prime markets with advanced infrastructure, rather than the remote and frozen north. The amount of oil contained in the Upper Vaca Tar Sand with this level of thickness, is simply enormous," said Joseph R. Kandle, president of the operating subsidiary, Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co.

"Pleasant Valley is a key component of our program to re-exploit producing properties with enormous amounts of oil still in place because modern recovery methods have never been applied before and many oil bearing zones have yet to be tested. Pleasant Valley is exactly the kind of property that can yield exceptional upside to leverage the benefit to the mineral owners, drilling partners and our shareholders. That process is now underway," said F. Lynn Blystone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Tri-Valley will first drill a vertical core well to take samples to analyze for optimum recovery design. Then, a hole will be cut in the casing at depth and the well will be side- tracked to drill a horizontal well bore of approximately 1,500 feet, which will then be filled with super heated 600 degrees Fahrenheit steam to melt the tar and re-pressurize the reservoir to flow the oil.