NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - August 15, 2016) - Petro River Oil Corp. (OTCBB: PTRC) ("Petro River" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on our ongoing corporate activities, as well as the development plans for our core acreage in Osage County described below.
A new corporate presentation has been made available concurrently with this press release and can be found at http://petroriveroil.com/investor-relations/corporate-presentation.
Core Assets:
The Pearsonia West Concession, Osage County, Oklahoma
The Pearsonia West Concession in Osage County, Oklahoma includes 106,500 contiguous acres centered on the structural trend of the Pearsonia-Blackland-Foraker fields. These fields have produced in excess of 20 million barrels of oil through vertical well development and are adjacent to fields that have produced more than 300 million barrels of oil through vertical production since the early 1900s.
The Company recently reprocessed 35 square miles of 3-D seismic data, which defined 4,480 acres of structural closures containing Pennsylvanian channel and Mississippian chat formations. As a result, Petro River and its operating partners have accelerated its plan to drill four wells in Fall 2016. The program will test the first 1,610 acres of the defined structural closures, which have prospective resource potential of 2,500,000 barrels of oil. Results are expected in November 2016.
We plan to acquire an additional 55 square miles of 3-D seismic in the southern portion of the concession in 2017. Upon success in the initial drilling phase, the Company anticipates providing scalable and repeatable vertical drilling opportunities within the concession.
"Osage County has been producing oil for over a century, and Petro River's operating partners have successfully drilled more than 900 wells in Osage County near our Pearsonia West Concession," commented Mr. Stephen Brunner, President of Petro River. "We are very optimistic, based on our 3-D seismic data, which is the basis for our accelerated four well program in the Fall 2016," added Mr. Brunner. Mr. Brunner, as former president of Constellation Energy from 2008 to 2014, was responsible for over 2000 wells in Osage County.
Larne Basin, Northern Ireland
As a result of historical political issues in Northern Ireland and poor imaging of seismic data (which have both been resolved), the Larne Basin remains the only Carboniferous Basin in Europe that is essentially untested for hydrocarbons. Petro River owns a 9% direct working interest and a 3.2% indirect interest through its investment in Horizon Energy Partners, LLC ("Horizon Energy") in both an onshore license (PL1/10) and offshore license (P2123), which together comprise about 130,000 acres and encompass the heart of the Larne Basin. Good reservoir quality was confirmed from prior drilling and the existence of hydrocarbon traps was evident from recently acquired 2-D seismic data.
As previously disclosed, Petro River announced that the analysis of its first exploratory well in Larne Basin -- Woodburn Forest #1 -- confirmed the presence of an active petroleum system. The discovery of thermogenic gas limits the risks associated with Petro River's Larne Basin exploration program by providing further evidence of a mature source rock within the basin, and supports the Company's prior estimates of prospective resources of more than 1 billion barrels of potential oil and gas equivalents across the license.
Carboniferous-sourced basins throughout Europe are, historically, very prolific. By fulfilling the current work program, the onshore license was extended for a five-year period, which affords ample time for the Company to work with Horizon Energy and other partners to develop Phase II of the exploration program.
Kern County, California
The Kern County Field was discovered in the early 1900's and, to date, has produced in excess of 100 million barrels of oil and gas equivalents from numerous formations. It is ideally located adjacent to one of the richest oil source kitchens in the world. Within a 20-mile radius, over 10 billion barrels of oil have been produced and the area is home to four of the ten largest onshore oilfield discoveries in the United States. The Kern County field is geologically complex and was historically developed primarily by small, competing companies without the benefit of modern seismic data. Petro River's management believes that acquiring a state-of-the-art, modern 3-D seismic survey of the field will reveal numerous undrilled opportunities, resulting in the discovery and production, through primary recovery alone, of up to an additional 36 million barrels of oil. Significant exploratory potential also exists.
Petro River acquired a 13.75% direct working interest and an indirect interest through Horizon Energy's acquisition of a 30% direct working interest in the Kern County Field. The well depths range from 4,000-8,500 feet and the oil is light, in contrast to many of the ''heavy" oil fields nearby. Extensive oil and gas infrastructure are in place. This is a low-risk, uniquely situated opportunity with attractive economics and a profile that is highly sought after in the oil and gas industry.
Our plans for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017 is to process and interpret 3-D seismic survey and possibly drilling an initial test well in 2017.
Corporate Events
Company executives will be presenting the Pearsonia West drilling program at Enercom's The Oil & Gas Conference® 6:25pm EDT today in Denver, CO, which will be streamed live at http://www.theoilandgasconference.com/togc-webcast/ptrc/.
About: Petro River Oil Corp.
Petro River Oil Corp. (OTCBB: PTRC) is an independent energy company with its core holdings in Northeast Oklahoma, the Larne Basin in Northern Ireland, and Kern County, California. Petro River's strategy is to apply modern technology, such as 3-D Seismic analysis to exploit hydrocarbon-prone resources in historically prolific plays and underexplored prospective basins to build reserves and to create value for the Company and its shareholders. For more information, please visit our website at www.petroriveroil.com.
Forward-Looking Statements.
This news release contains forward-looking and other statements that are not historical facts. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual performance and results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These forward looking statements, projections and statements are subject to change and could differ materially from final reported results. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. Petro River assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law. Additionally, Petro River undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect to the matters discussed above. Readers should also carefully review the "Risk Factors" in Petro River's annual report on Form 10-K, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other reports filed with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
