Statoil Abandons OzBeta-1 Well in Permit EP 127 in Northern Territory

Canada's PetroFrontier Corp. (PetroFrontier) reported Tuesday that Statoil Australia Theta B.V. (Statoil), PetroFrontier's joint venture partner and the operator of the 2014 work program and budget has completed testing operations at the OzBeta-1 well in exploration permit (EP) 127 in Australia's Northern Territory. The OzBeta-1 well was perforated over a 9.8 foot (3 meter) interval within the Arthur Creek Hot Shale from 4,419 to 4,429 feet (1,347 to 1,350 meters) depth. A small water based hydraulic stimulation was successfully completed and a total of 4,838 cubic feet (137 cubic meters) of water and 14.1 tons of sand were pumped into the well. Testing operations, utilizing a coiled tubing conveyed jet pump were then carried out. A total of 5,544 cubic feet (157 cubic meters) of water was produced with no measurable volume of hydrocarbons. No oil or gas was produced and Statoil has informed PetroFrontier that the OzBeta-1 well will now be abandoned.

These results are disappointing and technically challenging considering the positive hydrocarbon indicators measured while drilling and subsequently derived from log data.

Statoil will now proceed with completion and testing operations at the OzDelta-1 well in EP 128, as it is now considered to be the technically preferred location over the OzAlpha-1 in EP 104 location as previously announced.

OzDelta-1

The OzDelta-1 well was drilled to a total vertical depth of 2,755 feet (840 meters) and encountered a combined total of approximately 321 feet (98 meters) of Lower Arthur Creek Hot Shale and Thorntonia formations. Multiple oil shows were recorded while drilling and a continuous coring operation recovered approximately 105 feet (32 meters) of core. PetroFrontier's independent third party petrophysical analysis has identified a total net pay of approximately 62 feet (19 meters) within the Arthur Creek and Thorntonia formations utilizing a porosity cut off of 2 percent and a water saturation cut-off of 58 percent. Statoil has developed a completion and testing program for this well which includes perforating a 9.8 foot (3 meter) interval, performing a hydraulic stimulation and testing the well with a jet pump. The main objective of the completion is to test the concept of oil production from these formations which has yet to be proven. Subject to contractor availability, weather and regulatory approvals, testing operations are anticipated to be completed early in the fourth quarter of 2014.



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