1 Apparently trying to get on the good side of California's new governor, Cimarex Energy Co., Denver, has named a series of new-field wildcats in Madera and Merced counties after movies in which Arnold Swartzenegger starred. In Merced County, it has permitted the #1 True Lies in Section 14-10s-13e. The well is 2.66 miles west of Chowchilla Field and eight miles north of Dos Palos, Calif. The Madera County wells are the #1 Total Recall in Section 14-10s-13e, the #1 Predator in Section 23-10s-13e and the #1 Terminator in Section 27-10s-13e. All of the wells will search for gas at an unreported depth. The Total Recall and Predator wells are about two miles west of Chowchilla Field and about eight miles northeast of the town of Dos Palos. The Terminator well is 5.75 miles northeast of Dos Palos and 1.25 miles north of Ash Slough Field, IHS Energy said. Additionally, Cimarex plans a deeper-pool exploratory well in Section 11-11s-13e, in Fresno County. The #1 Judgement Day well is looking for gas about 5.5 miles east of Dos Palos. 2 Four new wildcats-each in a different county-are scheduled for lightly drilled Nevada. Alpine Inc., Edmond, Okla., plans the #1-14 Needle Springs is in Section 14-10n-52e in nonproducing Little Smoky Valley in Nye County. It's about 25 miles west-northwest of Trap Spring Field, which produces from Garrett Ranch volcanics, and 34 miles west of the town of Currant. The well is projected to 9,000 ft. Noble Energy Inc., Houston, has staked two wildcats. Its #11-22 Diamond Federal, in Section 22-24n-54e, Eureka County, is scheduled for 8,400 ft. The nearest drilling was an 8,889-ft. dry hole in 1980. It found Chainman shale at 7,355 ft. and Devonian at 8,690 ft. In White Pine County, Noble's #12-26 Rattlesnake Federal will go to 7,000 ft. in Section 26-22n-55e. That well is 39 miles east of Blackburn Field and 58 miles northwest of Ely. The fourth wildcat was permitted by V.F. Neuhaus Properties, McAllen, Texas. That 4,000-ft. wildcat is the #7-1 Stampede in Section 7-34-67e in Elko Country. The well is some 14 miles west-northwest of West Wendover and about 100 miles east-northeast of Blackburn Field. 3 Bill Barrett Corp., Denver, plans a second wildcat on the southeastern flank of the Uinta Basin in Utah. The company's #8-5-15-21 Tumbleweed Unit is in Section 5-15s-21e, Uintah County, and is scheduled to 6,100 ft., most likely in the Mesaverde. The well is 2.5 miles north-northwest of Barrett's #14-16-16-21 Tumbleweed Unit-State, a wildcat it drilled to Mesaverde at 5,800 ft. last summer. It hasn't released any details about that well. The new location is between three and six miles east-southeast of a new area that Barrett and Wind River Resources Corp. are developing, according to IHS Energy. 4 A rig has been moved onsite to drill the #17-1 Kings Meadow Ranches well for Wolverine Gas & Oil Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. The well is in a nonproducing area of the Wasatch Plateau in south-central Utah's Sevier County, about 2.5 miles southeast of Sigurd. The well, in Section 17-23s-1w, is 45 miles west-southwest of the nearest production in Emery County. It is scheduled to Jurassic Navajo at 9,750 ft. 5 Herco Exploration LLC, Billings, has permitted a 2,800-ft. wildcat near Hailstone Dome in southern Montana, about 15 miles west-southwest of Broadview in northern Stillwater County. The well, in Section 35-4n-20e, apparently will look at Cretaceous and Jurassic formations through the Morrison. The location is more than three miles east-southeast of Big Coulee Field, which produces gas from several Cretaceous zones and Morrison above 3,000 ft., according to IHS Energy. 6 Also in the Hailstone Dome area of southern Montana, Antelope Resources LLC, Billings, has asked for a drilling permit for an 1,800-ft. wildcat. This well is six miles south-southwest of Broadview in Section 18-3n-23e, northwestern Yellowstone County. The target apparently is Cretaceous gas. The well is more than eight miles east of Little Basin Field in Stillwater County, which produces gas from a Frontier/Lakota pool. 7 Dallas-based Petro-Hunt LLC completed a wildcat discovery 25 miles northeast of Richey, Mont., for 54 bbl. of oil per day from Red River. The #25A-1-1 Qualley, in Section 25-23n-54e, Richmond County, was planned as an 11,900-ft. Red River test. It is 1.5 miles south of Petro-Hunt's #13D-1-1-BR, which it completed early last year for 148 bbl. of oil and 85,000 cu. ft. of gas per day from Red River. 8 Condor Petroleum Inc., Tioga, N.D., is recompleting its Hayland Field discovery well about nine miles northeast of Wildrose, N.D., as a Bakken formation producer. The company's #12-1 Tangsrud, in Section 12-160n-96w, Divide County, recovered undisclosed volumes of oil at about 8,950 ft. in Bakken during tests. The company has asked to commingle production from Bakken and Madison zones in the well. 9 Yates Petroleum Corp., Artesia, N.M., completed a Green River Basin discovery some 41 miles south-southeast of Pinedale, Wyo. Gas flowed at a rate of 327,000 cu. ft. a day from Mesaverde at the #1 Merlin Unit in Section 27-27n-107w, Sublette County, after a fracture treatment between 10,401-25 ft. Flowing tubing pressure was 140 psi. The discovery is about 12 miles southeast of Jonah Field and about two miles east-southeast of the #14-20 Sagebrush, which was completed in 2002 for 330,000 cu. ft. of gas, two bbl. of condensate and 30 bbl. of water a day from five fracture-stimulated Lance intervals. 10 Also, a discovery flowed gas at a rate of nearly 2 million cu. ft. per day, along with 105 bbl. of water, for Yates Petroleum in the Red Desert Basin The company's #2 Luman Rim-Federal, in Section 35-24n-98w, Sweetwater County, Wyo., went to 11,230 ft. and was fracture stimulated in five Mesaverde zones between 9,349 and 10,758 ft. The well is about 33 miles northwest of Wamsutter and almost 1.5 miles north-northwest of the #1-3 Red Lake-Federal discovery completed last year for 2.3 million cu. ft. of gas a day, according to IHS Energy. 11 In separate activity in Sweetwater County, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, completed the #10-28 Wind Dancer Unit wildcat, Section 28-24n-96w, for 3.5 million cu. ft. of gas and 22 bbl. of condensate a day. The well is about 28 miles northwest of Wamsutter. It produced from two fractured zones in Lewis from 10,884 to 11,038 ft. and two fractured intervals in Almond from 11,300 and 11,572 ft. Tests were run through a 64/64-in. choke with 440 psi of flowing tubing pressure. Cabot is drilling a west offset to the discovery. 12 ExxonMobil Corp. plans a 13,700-ft. wildcat in Colorado's Piceance Basin, about 31 miles northwest of the town of Rifle. The #T63X-2G Willow Ridge Comm is in Section 2-3s-97w in southern Rio Blanco County, about 1.25 miles east of an abandoned Mesaverde producer in the Sulphur Creek Field area, according to IHS Energy. About three miles northeast, ExxonMobil recently completed a producer on the southwest flank of Piceance Creek Field for 2.5 million cu. ft. of gas a day from 19 stimulated Mesaverde intervals. 13 In the southern part of the Piceance Basin, Strachan Exploration Inc., Denver, has staked an 8,500-ft. wildcat to evaluate Mesaverde gas. The #1 Hightower Mountain well is in Section 2-9s-92w in northeastern Mesa County, Colo., about 17 miles south-southeast of Rifle. The well is about 2.5 miles south-southeast of the Hells Gulch Field discovery well, which flowed 5 million cu. ft. of gas from Mesaverde when it was completed in 1964. 14 Evergreen Resources Alaska Inc., Denver, filed an operations plan with the Alaska Division of Oil & Gas for a core drilling program to look for coal-seam gas potential in the southeastern Matanuska-Susitna Valley of southern Alaska. It plans seven wells, all in Seward Meridian. They are the #1 Kashwitna Lake in Section 7-20n-4w; the #1 Willow Fishhook in Section 3-19n-4w; the #1 Sheep Creek in Section 20-22n-4w; the #1 Little Su in Section 35-19n-23; the #1 Houston Pit in Section 2-18n-3w; the #1 Willow in Section 13-20n-4w; and, the #1 Caswell Creek in Section 6-21n-4w. 15 Unocal Corp. completed its #1 Happy Valley wildcat as a discovery with 110 ft. of gas pay on the south-central Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. The well is about seven miles southeast of Ninilchik at a surface location in Section 22-2s-13w, Seward Meridian. The bottomhole location of the west-trending directional well is in Section 21 of the same township. Unocal confirmed its discovery with the #2 Happy Valley, drilled northwest from the same pad.