Startup Fidelis has a producing well

Allen Baker

Fidelis Energy Inc. has announced its first successful well and plans several more to exploit a natural gas reservoir between Sacramento and Stockton, Calif.

The Archer-Whitney No. 1 well is initially expected to produce about 5 million cubic feet daily, after an open test produced gas at a rate of 12 million cubic feet a day. Drilling is expected to start on a second well in September, and as many as five production wells are expected.

Operator for the North Franklin project is Archer Longbow. Silver Star Energy has a 40 percent interest.

Fidelis, which began operations in November of 2000, holds a 35 percent interest after getting involved in the project in mid-April with a $250,000 investment. Three weeks later, Fidelis added $500,000 more to boost the company’s interest in the property to the 35 percent.

Contracts have already been signed with a pipeline company and a gas purchaser, and a Fidelis spokesman says the company could have three producing wells by the end of the year.

The North Franklin project is in the Sacramento Basin along the productive “Eastside Winters stratigraphic trend.” The gas reservoir at North Franklin is the Winters formation.

Fidelis, based in Tucson, Ariz., also has interests in Alberta and in Kern County, Calif., but no other producers at this point.