March
18, 2004
NEWS RELEASE
Agreement on Deep Slovenian Gas
Loon Energy Inc. (“Loon”) (TSX-V:LEY) announces
it has, together with its partners, Nemmoco Slovenia
Corporation (“Nemmoco”) and Auldstone Investments
Limited (“Auldstone”), entered into an agreement
with WPN Resources Limited (“WPN) with respect to the
deeper gas horizons underlying the Loon et al joint venture
area in eastern Slovenia.
Under the agreement and subject to certain conditions precedent,
WPN would acquire a 48.75% interest in reservoirs below the
main Petisovci oil reservoir commencing at a depth of approximately
2,000 metres (the “Deeper Reservoirs”), all located
in the Petisovci-Dolina field area of Slovenia. The
Agreement is subject to WPN retaining a third party consulting
firm to undertake a full technical review of the Deeper Reservoirs
and to WPN demonstrating by April 25th, 2004 that it has at
least Euro 4.2 million (approximately Cdn $ 7.1 million) available
to spend on evaluating the Deeper Reservoirs underlying the
Petisovci-Dolina field.
Based on the technical analysis to date, it has been agreed
that the work will consist of performing at least 4 fracture
stimulations on existing deep wells or such other equivalent
work as may be agreed and recommended pursuant to the Tory-Ikoda
report and mutually agreed by all parties to the agreement.
The existing deep wells were drilled in the mid to late 1980’s
and have produced approximately 9 Bcf from certain zones within
the Deeper Reservoirs. Currently only minor gas volumes
are produced from a few of these wells. The Deeper Reservoirs
contain multiple sand reservoirs, believed to have potential
for gas production, which have not been stimulated or produced
to date.
WPN has retained Troy-Ikoda Limited to conduct the technical
review of the Deeper Reservoirs and the past fracturing program.
Troy-Ikoda, based in the United Kingdom, is one of Europe’s
largest fully independent oil and gas consulting companies.
The review is expected to be completed in May 2004.
Upon completion of both the technical review and the stimulation
program described above, WPN will have earned their interest
in the project and Loon will retain a 9.1875% interest in
the Deeper Reservoirs and a 26.25% interest in all other zones.
The Petisovsci and Dolina fields lie on a large anticlinal
structure which continues east into Hungary. Approximately
1/3 of the structure is in Slovenia with the balance in Hungary.
The oil field on the Hungarian side of the border, the Lovaszi
field, has produced 50 million barrels and 230 Bcf of gas
while the Petisovsci-Dolina field area has produced 5.6 million
barrels of oil and 34.3 Bcf of gas, less than 15% of the volumes
produced at Lovaszi. The Company believes that significantly
more oil and gas can be produced from the Slovenian part of
the structure.
Slovenia is located in south-central Europe and is bounded
by Croatia (south), Hungary (east), Austria (north) and Italy
(west). The project area is located in eastern Slovenia
near to the borders with Hungary and Croatia approximately
210 kilometres south of Vienna, Austria and 180 kilometres
northeast of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Slovenia
will be joining the European Union (the “EU”)
in May of this year.
Loon is an oil and gas exploration and production company
with approximately 40 boepd of production in Canada and exploration
and development projects in south-central Europe and other
areas.
| Company Contact: |
Norman W. Holton, Chairman
& CEO
800, 700-4th Avenue S.W.
Calgary, Alberta, T2P 3J4
CANADA
Bus: (403) 264-8877 Fax: (403) 264-8861
e-mail: loon@loon-energy.com |
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and
does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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