STRATA-X RECEIVES PERMIT TO DRILL SECOND HORIZONTAL WELL
By: WROYWRUL News Feb 26th, 2014
(Clay County)-Strata-X has received a second horizontal drilling permit after some “heated discussion” between state lawmakers and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
State Representative David Reis accused DNR officials of making additional demands for companies to obtain permits.
“These companies are chomping at the bit. They want to drill some holes and take core samples. They want to start mapping out the field. And DNR is not granting them permits to drill.”
Reis says Strata-X received its permit after lawmakers met with DNR officials last week.
“But going forward, we can’t have this intervention with DNR…these internal interpretations and signing off by the governor. That was not in the bill that the governor had to sign off on this permit.”
Reis has encouraged DNR to let companies drill test wells. He also wants the agency to finish promulgating the rules so fracking permits can be issued. Reis says Texas approves 60 fracking jobs a day.
“There’s over 6,000 wells, just in the Eagle Ford Formation alone. 60 a day. My goodness, we can’t do one in four months.”
The test well that DNR approved for Strata-X is located in Clay County, northwest of Flora. The Raccoon Creek #1 is expected to test the Devonian Lingle formation.
The permit issued by DNR authorizes the following (approximate) drilling parameters: a true vertical depth of 4,500 feet, a true measured depth of 9,300 feet, and a horizontal leg length of 4,300 feet.
The well is approximately 7 miles northeast of the company’s first horizontal test well, the Burkett 5-34HOR.
In anticipation of drilling the Raccoon Creek #1, Strata-X is currently conducting approximately 6 miles of 2D seismic operations to acquire data for geo-steering of the horizontal leg of the well. The company executed a drilling contract with Les Wilson, Inc. of Carmi for drilling the Raccoon Creek #1.
Strata-X expects to drill the well after the acquired seismic data is processed and Les Wilson Inc.’s rig #30 becomes available.
The company has acquired a 100% net working interest in oil and gas exploration rights on 49,200 net acres covering the Vail Oil Project in the Illinois Basin. Strata-X Energy Ltd. is based in Denver, CO. The company has exploration opportunities in North Dakota, California, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and Western Australia.
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Oil or gas? Still horizontal fracking. IDNR may be enabling bending of its own regulations in that another horizontal fracking permit was given for drilling near Carmi, and their proposed Rules haven’t passed yet. This highlights the loopholes in the proposed “high-volume” horizontal fracking Rules which omit other forms of horizontal fracking, like nitrogen or CO2, that still have many hazards as was demonstrated in the Fairfield blowout a few weeks ago. The Strata-X company website indicates that this is their “Vail Oil Project in the Illinois Basin.” Read Srata-X and IDNR info by clicking the websites below:
Strata-X Info: http://www.strata-x.com/news/2013/news031713.html
IDNR drilling registration form: http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/OilandGas/Documents/FrackingRegistration/WebPageInstructions.pdf