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B.C. junior Storm Cat Energy new to Alaska
Storm Cat Energy, the second-highest bidder at the Alaska Mental Health Trust Land Office Nov. 9 Cook Inlet oil and gas lease sale, is a Canadian company based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The company was formed in 2000 to focus on producing oil and gas from unconventional reservoirs: “tight sandstones, coal seams, and organic rich shales,” the company says on its website, www.stormcatenergy.com. These are reservoirs that have been neglected in many parts of the world, the company said, as they “require extensive technical knowledge from both geological and engineering perspectives…” Mongolia exploration The company has no production, but is actively working in Mongolia, where it signed a production sharing contract with the Petroleum Authority of Mongolia in February, an agreement ratified by the government of Mongolia in May. The agreement requires a minimum commitment of US$4.8 million over a five-year term and allows for the exploration and development of natural gas from coal.
Storm Cat said Oct. 21 that it completed a planned surface mapping project this summer in Southern Gobi in Mongolia, and then began stratigraphic drilling in the Narlin Sikhait region of southern Mongolia, collecting continuous core samples from eight exploratory holes.
Storm Cat said it cored “important coal accumulations” of more than 41 meters in total thickness, “occurring in as many as 10 separate seams. Most drilling depths were limited to 150 meters due to mechanical constraints of the cost-effective Mongolian rig.” The company said it designed the shallow drilling locations “to sub-parallel the coal exposures along the 70 kilometer length of the Narlin Sukrait thrust fault.”
Storm Cat said “seven of these eight exploratory wells encountered substantial amounts of coal. Management concluded the eighth well bore was simply unable to reach the coal-bearing intervals due to the depth restrictions of the small drilling rig.”
A larger drilling rig from another driller is moving into selected locations where up to three wells will be drilled and cores taken down to 900 meters south of the Narlin Sukhait thrust fault, “where gas content work will evaluate the gas ‘richness’ of the various coal seams,” Storm Cat said. A North American gas content or desorption company — Hampton, Waechter & Associates — is assisting with data collection and is providing gas content measurements. “These deeper tests will also attempt to document the occurrence of coal cleating,” Storm Cat said.
Storm Cat said Oct. 28 that “it has agreed in principle with the Petroleum Authority of Mongolia” to negotiate terms of a formal joint exploration agreement covering coal deposits which the company believes may contain natural gas. The Alaska connection And what brings Storm Cat to Alaska?
On Oct. 19 the company announced that one of its directors, Scott Zimmerman of Denver, has been named president of the company. Until recently, Zimmerman was vice president of operations and engineering for Denver-based Evergreen Resources Inc. Evergreen Resources, a Rockies-based coalbed methane producer, has been working a coalbed methane prospect in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Anchorage.
Pioneer Natural Resources acquired Evergreen in May, and Storm Cat invited Zimmerman “to lead Storm Cat Energy in expanding the company’s coalbed methane projects and initiatives in North America and Asia,” the company said.
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