DENVER, COLORADO and BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA and VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA -- (Marketwire) -- 03/17/13 -- The directors and management of Strata-X Energy Ltd. ("Strata-X" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: SXE) (ASX: SXA) are pleased to provide an update on the Company's Vail Oil Project in the Illinois Basin, Illinois (USA) where Strata-X currently has a 100% interest in 46,300 net acres. The Vail Oil Project is a high potential oil appraisal and development project with the first appraisal well due to commence in the second quarter of 2013.
Strata-X anticipates advancing the development of the Vail Oil Project through the drilling of a horizontal appraisal well. The Company has submitted an application to drill a horizontal well to the proper regulatory agencies in the State of Illinois with (approximately) the following parameters: a true vertical depth of 4,500ft, a true measured depth of 9,300ft and a horizontal leg length of 4,300ft. The Company is currently acquiring seismic data to help with the geo-steering of the horizontal leg. The final completion method for this well will be based on information gathered from a core taken from the vertical portion of the well and the results of the well.
The Company's working interests are situated within an area interpreted as an unconventional continuous oil field in the Illinois Basin. Strata-X plans to continue leasing additional prospective lands prior to and during the Vail Oil Project appraisal drilling program. Given the competitive leasing environment in the area, the Company will not release the location of its first horizontal well until after the permit to drill has been issued by the proper regulatory agencies.
About the Vail Oil Project:
Strata-X is 'First Mover' on the Vail Oil Project
Strata-X completed an extensive in-house analysis of a highly productive onshore USA basin in 2012. The results of this technical work led to interpretation of a continuous oil field within a dolomitic reservoir, referred to as the Vail Oil Project located in the State of Illinois, USA. The oil field is interpreted to extend over an area of approximately 500 square miles with the dolomitic reservoir at depths between 3,500 and 5,000 feet.
The Company's in-house analysis included 120 historic wells that intersected the dolomitic reservoir. Taken together with data on oil and gas recoveries from formation tests and reported oil shows in samples from the reservoir, this analysis supports Strata-X's interpretation that the reservoir is oil saturated. The dolomitic reservoir target of the Vail Oil Project is below the New Albany Shale, which is interpreted to have expelled in excess of 300 billion barrels of oil (Lewan, et al., 2002). To date, the basin has produced over 4 billion barrels of oil (Higley, et al., 2001), primarily from structures above the source rock where several studies have geochemically linked the oil produced from these reservoirs to the New Albany Shale (Hatch, et al., 1990).
Strata-X recognizes direct analogies between the Elm Coulee Oil Field, located in the Williston Basin, and the Vail Oil Project. According to the Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation website, Elm Coulee has produced over 138 million barrels of oil equivalent to date from a continuous, unconventional oil field from the Bakken dolomitic reservoir and is expected to ultimately produce over 200 million barrels of oil (Sonnenberg and Pramudito, 2009). The dolomitic reservoirs in both Vail and Elm Coulee are of the same geological age, have similar thickness and are immediately below highly generative source rocks.
Elm Coulee has about 5 million barrels of oil in place per section (Walker, et al., 2006), which compares favorably to Vail's interpreted 3 million barrels of oil in place per section at shallower depths. Strata-X interprets that the target 50,000 net acres at the Vail Oil Project contain over 230 million (undiscovered) barrels original oil in place.(i) (see Cautionary Statement below).
Oil was intersected in many historic wells at Elm Coulee but, like Vail, oil flows and recoveries were sub-commercial in the early vertical wells. More recent horizontal hydraulic fracturing treatments at Elm Coulee have resulted in commercial oil flows with July 2012 production from the field in excess of 33,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation website, accessed 9/19/12).
Strata-X commenced acquiring 100% net working interests in oil and gas exploration rights in two counties in the Illinois Basin in early 2012 and to date has acquired an interest in 46,300 net acres.
About Strata-X
Strata-X is a Denver, Colorado (USA) based company and is engaged in the business of oil and gas exploration and development with a variety of exploration opportunities in North Dakota, California, Colorado, Texas, Illinois and Western Australia and production and development opportunities in California. Strata-X has 123,236,013 common shares outstanding and trades under the symbol "SXE" on the TSX.V and "SXA" on the ASX.
Public documents for Strata-X Energy Ltd. can be found at SEDAR(Canada) (www.sedar.com) and ASX.com.au (Australia).
By definition of the COGE Handbook - "Undiscovered resources are those quantities of oil and gas estimated on a given date to be contained in accumulations yet to be discovered." Further the Handbook states - Caution (per NI 51-101/5.9(2)(v)(B)) - "There is no certainty that any portion of the resources will be discovered. If discovered, there is no certainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources." In addition, per NI 51-101/5.6 "the estimated values disclosed do not represent fair market value."
This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. See "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's Filing Statement dated August 30, 2011 available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell securities and the Company is not soliciting an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts:
Strata-X Energy Ltd.
Tim Hoops (USA)
President
+1 720-515-8793
info@strata-x.com
Strata-X Energy Ltd.
Colin Christensen (Canada)
Investor Relations
+1 403-483-8363
colin@strata-x.com
Strata-X Energy Ltd.
Duncan Cornish (Australia)
Corporate Secretary
+61 7 3212-6299
dcornish@strata-x.com
