1 Prime Natural Resources Inc., Houston, plans a wildcat to look for oil and gas in Kern County, Calif. The company's #1-8 Coldwater Farms, in Section 8-27s-20e, is roughly 1.5 miles north of North Belridge Field and 8.5 miles west-southwest of Lost Hills. Prime did not reveal the target formation or the well depth. 2 Clayton Williams Energy Inc., Midland, is production testing Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone at its #1 Babbitt wildcat in north-central Arizona. The well is in Section 15-27n-9e in east-central Coconino County, almost six miles south of Cameron. Clayton Williams is conducting tests from production through perforations between 3,170 and 3,480 ft. and between 3,524-34 ft. The company planned the well as a 7,000-ft. test to Precambrian but drilled only to 4,350 ft. and plugged back to 3,775 ft., according to IHS Energy. The nearest production is approximately 130 miles northeast in the Four Corners area where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico meet. 3 Salt Lake City's Questar Corp. filed a proposal with the Vernal, Utah, office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a field development strategy involving up to 1,239 wells in the Greater Deadman Bench area in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah. The BLM plans an environmental assessment of the area, generally in townships 7s and 8s, ranges 21e to 24e, about 20 miles south of Vernal. Approximately 85% of the area is on federal land and another 12% is on state land. This isn't virgin territory. It already supports 278 oil and water-injection wells and some 300 gas wells with roads, IHS Energy said. The company could drill up to 1,239 wells in 10 years on 826 new locations and 470 existing well locations. The application also notes the need for power lines, well pads, pipelines, pumping units, water-injection facilities and gas treatment and compression equipment. 4 Houston Exploration Co., Houston, is drilling a wildcat in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah about seven miles from the Colorado border. The #2 Cartwright, in Section 34-9s-24e, is 1.5 miles south of Bonanza in Uintah County. The company projected the well to Wasatch at 5,480 ft. The closest Wasatch production came from the now-inactive Wasatch gas pool, where the field opener tested at a rate of 1.3 million cu. ft. of gas a day from perforations between 4,919-22 ft. The well produced 267.4 million cu. ft. of gas before it was abandoned. 5 The Reed Point Syncline of southern Montana, about 4.5 miles north-northwest of Absarokee in Stillwater County, is the site for a planned wildcat by Southwestern Energy Production Co., Houston. The well is in Section 9-3s-18e in a previously undrilled township, some 15 miles north-northeast of Dean Dome Field, now abandoned, which produced 105,732 bbl. of oil, 9.9 million cu. ft. of gas and 20,757 bbl. of water from the Lower Cretaceous Greybull Sand at depths shallower than 3,300 ft. Southwestern plans to drill to 4,500 ft. 6 Tulsa-based Zinke & Trumbo Inc. plans a wildcat about 16 miles south of Williston in McKenzie County, N.D. The #2-1 Forthum is in Section 1-151n-101w, more than a mile west of two wells in Sakakawea Field and 2.5 miles east-northeast of Ragged Butte Field. Both of those fields produce from Madison. 7 Petrosearch Operating Co., Houston, Texas, has skidded its rig 20 ft. west after it had to junk and abandon its #26-1 Petrosearch-Zatoupil wildcat at 3,000 ft. in Section 26-139n-97w in Stark County, N.D. The well is scheduled to test Lodgepole at 10,000 ft at the location five miles southwest of Dickinson. The new well will be called the #26-1A Petrosearch-Zastoupil. The closest Lodgepole production is almost two miles north in Eland Field. Petrosearch recently tested 1,800 bbl. of oil a day from a Lodgepole reentry at its #1-18 Gruman, about three miles northeast. 8 BP America Production Co., Houston, discovered gas at a rate of 541,000 cu. ft. a day at its #21-1 Fivemile wildcat in Section 21-21n-93w in northeastern Sweetwater County, Wyo. The discovery, about seven miles north-northeast of Wamsutter, tested the gas after fracture treatments in Lewis between 10,079-84 ft. and in Mesaverde between 10,711 and 10,972 ft. It ran the tests on a 64/64-in. choke after drilling to 11,146 ft. The nearest producer is a BP Lewis-Mesaverde well on the east flank of Siberia Ridge Field, 1.5 miles west. That well, the #19-02 Fivemile, was completed last year at a rate of 1.84 million cu. ft. of gas and 27 bbl. of water daily. 9 Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. has permitted a wildcat reaching for Frontier at 13,000 ft. on the southwestern flank of the Powder River Basin, Wyo. The #3-17 Copperhead is in Section 17-40n-76w, about 39 miles north of Glenrock in Converse County. It is less than three miles west of Finley Draw Field, which produces oil from Shannon and Frontier. The company also has drilled the #1-7 Copperhead 1.25 miles north-northwest and the #2-28 Copperhead 2.5 miles southeast. Information on both wells is tight, said IHS Energy. 10 A wildcat on the northwestern flank of the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Laramie County, Wyo., will target J-Sand at 7,930 ft. for Denver-based Delta Exploration Co. Inc. The #1-1 Gross is in Section 1-14n-62e, about five miles east-northeast of Burns. The well is 3.5 miles south-southeast of Gun Field's discovery well, the #1 State-Gun, completed in 1982 for 15 bbl. of oil and 27,000 cu. ft. of gas per day from fractured J Sand. 11 Avalon Corp., Denver, plans a wildcat to look at the Almond member of the Mesaverde on the southeastern flank of the Sand Wash Basin in Moffat County, Colo. The #4-2 Peroulis, in Section 4-7n-92w, will drill to 5,000 ft. About four miles northwest, a Mesaverde gas producer was completed in the southern part of Lay Creek Field for 921,000 cu. ft. of gas and 40 bbl. of water a day from Mesaverde, but the well was never brought online. Avalon also has staked the #4-1 Peroulis a half-mile southwest of the #4-2 well. 12 Reaching for Morrow Sand at 4,900 ft., Murfin Drilling Co., Wichita, Kan., will drill a wildcat seven miles north of Lamar in Prowers County, Colo. The #1-24 Lukie-Do is in Section 24-21s-47w, about a mile northwest of the nearest production in Channing Field, which produced from shallower Marmaton before it was abandoned. Murfin discovered Channing Field in 1984. The discovery well for that field flowed 1.91 million cu. ft. of gas a day from Morrow between 4,654-62 ft. It has produced 1.08 billion cu. ft. of gas since 1984 and averaged 27,800 cu. ft. of gas a day last October, IHS Energy said. 13 Gruy Petroleum Management, a subsidiary of Magnum Hunter Resources Inc., Houston, has set production casing at its two wildcats in McKinley County, N.M., and has spudded a third wildcat and staked a fourth. The wells are in the southern San Juan Basin between 60 and 70 miles southeast of Farmington. The wildcat currently being drilled is the #1 Tanner Tank SF 22 in Section 22-20n-7w, proposed to 3,500 ft. The planned wildcat is the #1 Alto Landing SF 34 in Section 34-20n-7w, also to 3,500 ft. It cased the #1 Prairie Dog SF 23 in Section 23-18n-82 to 3,407 ft. and the #1 Roadside SF 10 in Section 19-19n-5w to 2,147 ft. The cased wells were designed to test the Gallup and possibly the Menefee zones of the Mesaverde. 14 Yates Petroleum Corp., Artesia, N.M. has set pipe at its 8,601-ft. remote wildcat in a nonproducing area of northeastern New Mexico. The #1 Caree-BDL-State-Com is in Section 26-9n-28e, about 16 miles southwest of Tucumcari in western Quay County. The closest production is about 12 miles northwest where CKG Energy is developing a Pennsylvanian gas pool in Township 10n-27e. The three wells drilled to date have tested at rates between 3- and 6 million cu. ft. of gas a day. Yates also plans a 9,500-ft. wildcat about six miles north of its wildcat and about two miles south of the CKG pool. There, Yates plans to drill the #1 Hopewell-Ibis-BDJ in Section 10-9n-30e. 15 Total E&P USA Inc., Houston, has permitted a remote wildcat on its Caribou prospect about 48 miles west of Nuiqsut on the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) on the North Slope. The #26-11 Caribou is in Section 26-10n-5w, Umiat Meridian. It is about 52 miles west-southwest of production from the Alpine Field in the Colville River Unit. That field has approximately 430 million bbl. of oil in the Alpine sand at 6,900 ft., according to IHS Energy. In other activity, ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., Houston, plans three wildcats in the NPR-A. The wells are the #1 Scout in Section 20-11n-1e; the #1 Carbon in Section 4-10n-1e; and, the #4 Spark in Section 23-11n-1e, all in the Umiat Meridian.