Drilling Begins at WellStar's North Dakota Wells

WellStar Energy Corp. announced that the first well has been drilled and the second well has been spud on its anticipated primary non-operated joint venture (JV) in Dunn County, North Dakota. The Company expects to have a 40 percent working interest in each of the wells upon completion of the acquisition from a private Colorado corporation (the "Vendor") of certain non-operated oil and gas properties consisting of approximately 18,271 gross (7,273 net) contiguous acres located in North Dakota (the "Assets") which will constitute a "fundamental acquisition" (the "Acquisition") for the Company under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV").

In addition, two wells have recently been drilled and completed in the Bakken formation on the Company's anticipated secondary joint venture lands, which are contiguous to the primary joint venture but have a different operating partner. The wells are currently producing from two drilling units in which the Company has a potential 12.497 and a 5.208 percent working interest. The Vendor, through consultation with the Company, participated in the FREDERICKS USA 43-26H well (the Fredericks Well). Upon closing of the Acquisition, the Company expects to have a 5.208 percent working interest in the Fredericks Well. The second well, GARY BELL USA 23-36H ("Gary Bell Well") was successfully drilled and completed. The Vendor, through consultation with the Company, went non-consent on the Gary Bell Well. The Company expects to have a 12.497 percent working interest in the Gary Bell Well upon closing of the Acquisition after a three hundred percent penalty is paid from production revenue. Both wells have been put on confidential well status.

WellStar reported it entered into a purchase and sale agreement, as amended with the Vendor in connection with the proposed Acquisition. The Company and the Vendor have entered into a second amending agreement dated April 3 whereby the parties have agreed, among other things, to extend the termination date of the Purchase Agreement from April 16 to May 15. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the Amending Agreement, the purchase price for the Assets has been increased to $51,600,000 from $51,550,000.

Closing of the Acquisition is subject to, among other things, the Company securing satisfactory financing and obtaining approval of the TSXV, including review of a title opinion with respect to the Assets. There can be no assurance that the Acquisition will be completed as proposed or at all. As such, trading in the Company's shares remains highly speculative.

WellStar President Andrew H. Rees commented, "Management is extremely pleased that drilling has commenced on its anticipated primary JV and with the success of the two wells recently completed on its potential secondary JV as they mark the first wells drilled on the leases subsequent to the effective date of the Acquisition (being November 1, 2012 in the event that the Acquisition is completed). The Company has potential exposure to 17 gross (5.21 net) wells that have either been recently drilled or are currently scheduled to be drilled. These consist of 3 gross (0.58 net) wells drilled in 2013, 1 gross (0.4 net) well that is currently in progress and 13 gross (4.23 net) additional wells currently scheduled to be drilled; 10 of which are expected to be drilled on the primary JV and 3 of which are expected to be drilled on the secondary JV."

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Natural Gas Begins to Flow From Israel's Tamar Field

JERUSALEM - Natural gas from Israel's offshore Tamar field began to flow into the country's energy grid Sunday after two years of a gas shortage. The gas will allow Israel to be energy independent for at least three decades, in addition to becoming a net exporter of gas, according to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources.

The gas production from Tamar is also expected to add about 1% to Israel's economic growth this year, according to the Bank of Israel. Taking the gas production into account, gross domestic product is expected to grow 3.8% in 2013; without the gas, GDP would only grow 2.8%, the bank said. In 2012, GDP grew about 3%.

"This is an important day for the economy of Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "This is something that will enhance the economy of Israel along with all the citizens of Israel."

Most of the gas from Tamar, which contains an estimated 9 trillion cubic feet of gas, will initially be used by the state-owned electric company. The electric company is currently in debt and has had to raise prices recently due to a gas shortage since a supply deal with Egypt fell apart in the wake of political regime change there. Since gas stopped coming in from Egypt in 2011, the electric company has had to rely on more expensive forms of fuel, including diesel.

Israel recently created a sovereign wealth fund for profits from the gas in Tamar and the nearby larger Leviathan field, which is scheduled to begin production later this decade.

Stakeholders in Tamar include Delek Drilling Ltd. Partnership and Avner Oil Exploration Ltd. Partnership both subsidiaries of Delek Group Ltd. which each hold a 15.6% stake; Isramco Negev 2 LP, which holds 28%; and Houston-based Noble Energy Inc., which holds 36%.

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Europa Begins Seismic Acquisition over UK Onshore License

Europa Oil & Gas announced Tuesday that it has started the acquisition of 2D seismic data on its onshore PEDL 181 license in east Lincolnshire, UK.

According to the company, PEDL 181 is located in a working hydrocarbon system where a number of discoveries have been made.

Europa said that it will focus on four leads in the southern part of the license, where several prospects have been confirmed following technical evaluation. Three leads lie within the northeast trending Caistor anticline, while another – named Cuxwold – is located south of the anticline.

Europa's existing oil production at the Crosby Warren field lies at the westernmost end of the Brigg-Broughton anticline – which is an analogous trend to the west of the Caistor anticline.

The company has now begun the acquisition of approximately 50 miles of 2D seismic, as well as the reprocessing of existing 3D seismic over the Caistor anticline.

Europa CEO Hugh Mackay commented in a statement:

"The identification of four leads on PEDL 181, which is located next to the PEDL 180 & 182 licences, where we are due to drill an exploration well this year, and our producing oil field at Crosby Warren, is highly encouraging. As previously identified targets are drilled, it is important we maintain a pipeline of leads and prospects at various stages of development.

"Our strategy of developing a diversified asset base comprised of multiple licences including UK production and exploration, a gas appraisal project onshore France, and high impact frontier exploration in the Irish Atlantic Margin where we recently identified two large prospects, provides a portfolio for future drilling. The results of the 2D seismic acquisition
programme, alongside the interpretation of the reprocessed existing 3D datasets, will further define the prospectivity of the PEDL 181 licence and determine our future work programme."

Europa has a 50-percent interest in the PEDL 181 license and is the operator. Egdon Resources UK and Celtique Energie Petroleum each hold a 25-percent stake.

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Europa Begins Seismic Acquisition over UK Onshore License

Europa Oil & Gas announced Tuesday that it has started the acquisition of 2D seismic data on its onshore PEDL 181 license in east Lincolnshire, UK.

According to the company, PEDL 181 is located in a working hydrocarbon system where a number of discoveries have been made.

Europa said that it will focus on four leads in the southern part of the license, where several prospects have been confirmed following technical evaluation. Three leads lie within the northeast trending Caistor anticline, while another – named Cuxwold – is located south of the anticline.

Europa's existing oil production at the Crosby Warren field lies at the westernmost end of the Brigg-Broughton anticline – which is an analogous trend to the west of the Caistor anticline.

The company has now begun the acquisition of approximately 50 miles of 2D seismic, as well as the reprocessing of existing 3D seismic over the Caistor anticline.

Europa CEO Hugh Mackay commented in a statement:

"The identification of four leads on PEDL 181, which is located next to the PEDL 180 & 182 licences, where we are due to drill an exploration well this year, and our producing oil field at Crosby Warren, is highly encouraging. As previously identified targets are drilled, it is important we maintain a pipeline of leads and prospects at various stages of development.

"Our strategy of developing a diversified asset base comprised of multiple licences including UK production and exploration, a gas appraisal project onshore France, and high impact frontier exploration in the Irish Atlantic Margin where we recently identified two large prospects, provides a portfolio for future drilling. The results of the 2D seismic acquisition
programme, alongside the interpretation of the reprocessed existing 3D datasets, will further define the prospectivity of the PEDL 181 licence and determine our future work programme."

Europa has a 50-percent interest in the PEDL 181 license and is the operator. Egdon Resources UK and Celtique Energie Petroleum each hold a 25-percent stake.

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Richfield Begins Completion Ops at Wyoming Well

Richfield Oil & Gas Company announced it has begun completion of the Wasatch National Forest #16-15 Well in Uinta County, Wyoming. The well and the acreage were acquired by the Company in December of 2012. Development work on the well site and Mechanical Integrity Testing of the well was completed in October of 2012 prior to the closing of the acquisition. The well is expected to be put into production in April 2013. The Company owns an 80 percent working interest and a 62.4 percent net revenue interest in the well and a 100 percent working interest and a 78 percent net revenue interest in the surrounding acreage.

"We are excited to begin the first phase of our Rocky Mountain activities. These operations add to the Company's cash flow which will help Richfield to continue to develop our Kansas properties and ramp up our Central Utah plans," Chairman and CEO of Richfield Douglas C. Hewitt, Sr. said.

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Iraq Begins Design of $18B Oil Pipeline to Jordan

AMMAN - Oil-rich Iraq has started technical work on a planned $18 billion oil-export pipeline from Basra in southern Iraq to the Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, senior Iraqi oil officials said Thursday.

If realized, the pipeline would deliver a significant export outlet for Iraq's growing crude-oil production, which rose by 15% last year as the country focused on rejuvenating its energy sector. It could also provide an alternative to seaborne transport of oil through the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian officials threatened last year that they could block the potential chokepoint if the West didn't ease pressure on the country over its nuclear program.

Iraq has signed some 11 post-war oil deals, three gas agreements, and four oil and gas exploration contracts with international energy companies.

The first phase of the 1,680-kilometer oil pipeline will export some 1 million barrels a day from Basra, which pumps around 2.3 million barrels a day, or about 70% of Iraq's total oil production, Basra Governor Khalid Abdul Samad Khalaf said at an Iraqi conference in Amman.

The second phase will export a further 1.25 million barrels a day to the Syrian Banias port in the Mediterranean, said Jamal Faleh Hassan, head of designs section at the State Company for Oil Projects, an affiliate of the Iraqi oil ministry.

"Our priority now is to set up the part of the pipeline which goes to Aqaba in Jordan, while the part to Syria has been delayed because of the [security] situation there," he said.

Pipeline developers from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Japan and China attended the Amman conference, organizers said.

The Iraqi oil ministry has already awarded Canadian consultant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (SNC.T) a contract worth between $13 million and $14 million to carry out front-end engineering designs, said Mr. Hassan. The company is expected to finish the FEED work in the next three months, he said.

The 680-kilometer section of the pipeline located inside Iraq--which would extend from Basra to Haditha, northwest of Baghdad in the western Anbar province near the Jordan border--will be financed by the Iraqi government, said Sabah Abdul Kadhim al-Saedi, deputy head of the contracts office at the Iraqi oil ministry.

The Iraqi and Jordanian governments will choose investors to fund, build and operate the remaining 1,000 kilometers inside Jordan.

A gas pipeline will be built parallel to the oil pipeline to supply gas to power stations that will be constructed along the route. Some three pumping stations and three power stations will be built in Iraq to operate the pipeline. In the Jordan section, there will also be three pumping stations, Mr. Hassan said.

The project will also build storage facilities near Basra and Haditha with a total capacity of 28 million barrels, he said.

The gas-pipeline section inside Iraq will have a transport capacity of 350 million cubic feet a day to feed power stations operating the pipeline in Iraq.

The Jordan section will handle some 258 million cubic feet a day. About 100 million cubic feet a day of that gas will go to Jordan for domestic use while the remainder will be used to operate the pipeline inside Jordan.

Out of the 1 million barrels a day of oil exports, about 150,000 barrels a day will go to Jordan for domestic use as the Jordanian government has requested, Mr. Hassan said.

Jordan is dependent on imported oil and gas, as 96% of its needs come from other markets. The pipeline, if built, could easily meet all of Jordan's needs.

Last year, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimated that Iraq would be able to pump up to 6.1 million barrels a day in 2020 and 8.3 million barrels a day in 2035. Iraq said it would be able to reach 8 million to 9 million barrels a day in 2020.

The bulk of Iraqi crude oil exports are handled by the southern oil terminals in the Gulf, where Iraq is pumping between 2.1 million and 2.2 million barrels a day while 350,000 to 400,000 barrels a day are handled by the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Petrobras Begins Oil Production at Bauna Field

BRASILA - Petroleo Brasileiro, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, said Tuesday it began production in the Bauna offshore field and plans to ramp up output in the coming months.

The Bauna field is located in the BMS-40 block of the Santos basin. The production platform is currently connected to just one well, 9-SPS-88, but will be linked to another 10 wells in the coming months, the company said.

It was the third new production unit started up by the Rio de Janeiro-based company so far in 2013.

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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New Well Test Begins at Sapinhoa North

BG Group announced Monday the start of a new extended well test in the Sapinhoá North area of the BM-S-9 concession in the pre-salt Santos Basin – the latest stage in the field's development plan.

The floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) Cidade de São Vicente was connected to the 3-BRSA-788-SPS well, in water depths of approximately 7,000 feet.

BG said the FPSO will operate in the area for up to six months, gathering technical information on reservoir behavior and oil flow in the subsea lines, along with other data. During this initial test phase the well is expected to produce at around 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) – as authorised by Brazil's National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.

Commercial production from the Sapinhoá discovery began early last month when FPSO Cidade de São Paulo started up, on time and on budget, with a capacity to process 120 000 barrels of oil per day and 176 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

Another FPSO, the Cidade de Ilhabela, also known as FPSO 4, will produce from the Sapinhoá field and is on track to start production in the second half of 2014. This second FPSO has a production capacity of 150,000 barrels of oil per day and 212 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas.

BG Group has a 30-percent interest in block BM-S-9, with operator Petrobras holding 45 percent and Repsol Sinopec Brasil 25 percent.

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Reuters: Lebanon Begins Pre-Qualification Round for Oil, Gas Exploration

Lebanon has started a pre-qualification round for companies interested in offshore oil and gas exploration, with bids required by March 28, Reuters reported Friday.

Energy Minister Gebran Bassil said 29 companies have expressed interested in bidding, with about a quarter of those U.S. companies, Reuters reported.

Mr. Bassil told representatives of energy companies that the nation hopes to issue its first exploration and production agreement by February 2014, and hopes Lebanon could "enter the development phase starting 2016," Reuters reported.

Click here to view the full story.

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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JKX Begins Acid Treatment Program on Russian Wells

Eastern Europe-focused JKX Oil & Gas announced Thursday that work has begun on the hydrochloric acid treatment of three wells on its Koshebkhablskoye field in the Republic of Adygea, Russia.

JKX said the objective of the acid treatment program is to enhance well productivity by improving conditions in the near wellbore and the removal of residual drilling solids in the open-hole sections.

The first well in the program, well-25, had a side track completed on it in January and flowed during clean-up at a rate of 13 million cubic feet per day. Improved stable production rates should result from the current acid treatment, said JKX.

JKX Chief Executive Dr. Paul Davies commented in a statement:

"We are pleased to have the hydrochloric acidization program underway and look forward to having all three wells in production by mid-March."

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Obamacare Begins

Ground Zero in the Land of Opportunity

A Right Royal Whippersnapper: Why Things Will Never Change in Britain

Which Path for the Right?

Michigan Jobs

By Bill Boyarsky Ground Zero in the Land of Opportunity
By Mike Rose A Right Royal Whippersnapper: Why Things Will Never Change in Britain
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Sarah Silverman Pro-Choice Video Tells ‘Bros’ to Stand Up for the Ladies Watch: Fox News Contributor Gets Punched in Face During Michigan Union Protest The Revolution Continues in Challenge to Morsi Moyers and Sanders on America’s Media Oligopoly
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A striking nursing home worker wears buttons on her coat celebrating the Affordable Care Act and the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Bill Boyarsky

Dealing with the complex problems of the poor is one of the most difficult challenges facing Obamacare as the historic health reform law slowly but steadily enters American life.

Throughout the country, health professionals, politicians and health care activists are meeting about how to implement the Affordable Care Act now that it has been upheld by the Supreme Court and President Barack Obama’s re-election.

I attended one of these sessions recently and saw the potential for Obamacare in the nation’s impoverished communities. Among the topics was autism, a disability in which—as is true of much of American medical care—treatment is rationed on the basis of wealth.

Areva D. Martin, an attorney who advocates for children with special needs such as autism, called care for the disorder “a microcosm” of inadequate treatment of the poor, with insufficient diagnoses, limited and scattered facilities, and caregivers—parents, other relatives and friends—so burdened with two or three jobs and low incomes that they can’t fight for help in a bureaucratic system.

Martin spoke at a conference at St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, which has 140,000 visits a year from residents of South Los Angeles, home to many thousands of working-class Latinos and African-Americans. St. John’s provides primary, dental and mental health care; a team approach to complex ailments; and diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS. It is one of more than 8,000 community health clinics across the nation serving more than 20 million poor people, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.

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The clinics are a key part of the Obamacare effort to improve treatment of the poor. The Affordable Care Act provides $7.5 billion to expand services over five years and an additional $1.5 billion for construction of facilities.

Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s, told me that Obamacare is providing funds for new buildings and remodeling at the center’s main South L.A. facility and satellite clinics in the broad area of poverty that stretches for miles south of the office towers, expensive restaurants and high-priced homes of affluent Los Angeles.

Obamacare funding of Medicaid for the poor will put 12,000 St. John’s patients, presently without health insurance, on the government care program. By paying for these patients, Medicaid will provide funds to St. John’s, which now has to finance its care from donations and other scarce sources.

Autism requires a range of services administered by doctors, schools, health clinics, speech and behavior therapists, psychologists and others. To put all these components together requires parental sophistication and an ability to fight the system. For those in South L.A., it also means finding help at facilities that are often a long bus ride away.

Attorney Martin learned how poverty makes this difficult when she attended a parental meeting to find ways of helping her autistic son learn to read. She knew how to fight the system, unlike some of the poor mothers and fathers she met. Help, she found, is hard to obtain “if you are not educated, if you are not used to dealing with bureaucrats, if you don’t have a job that allows you time to go to two zillion meetings, if you are working three jobs.”

In a series published a year ago, Los Angeles Times journalist Alan Zarembo reported that state spending for treatment of autism is tilted toward whites in more affluent areas. For autistic children between the ages of 3 and 6, the critical period for treating the disorder, the Times found that California spent $11,723 per child for whites, $11,063 for Asians, $7,634 for Latinos and $6,593 for African-Americans.

St. John’s CEO Mangia said that his organization, helped by Obamacare funds, is planning a large center for special needs children, including those with autism, on a new medical campus being built in South L.A. to replace the old Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital.

“There will be early identification, intervention, mental health care, counseling, speech, psychological and occupational therapy, all the things these kids need here,” Mangia said, services now reserved for “upper-middle-class kids whose families can afford it.”

Autism is just an example. By putting money into community health clinics, expanding Medicaid, and financing improved primary and comprehensive treatment, Obamacare will improve life throughout the country for the poor   suffering from diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS and other complex ailments.

Such care should have been available a long time ago. Medicare for all would have been better. But at St. John’s and community health centers throughout America, dedicated health care professionals are making Obamacare work. So are others engaged in setting up the exchanges that will make a variety of insurance policies, with subsidies for the low income, available to those now uninsured.

Their work is the beginning of a journey that will end only when Obamacare—if it is successful—makes decent health care a right rather than something reserved for those who can afford it.

TAGS: affordable care act autism barack obama bill boyarsky election government health health care medicare money poverty



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