1 Alaska's Division of Oil & Gas has approved the Northeast Storms and Jacob's Ladder exploratory units on the North Slope. Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska Inc., Irving, Texas, is the operator of the Northeast Storms Unit in all or parts of sections 1, 2, 11 and 12-9n-12e; 1 through 12 in 9n-13e; 25, 26, 35 and 36-10n-12e; and 28 through 34-10n-13e, Umiat Meridian. The Ivishak sand is the target formation, and no wells have yet been drilled in the unit. The company plans to drill the Hailstorm prospect by June 2006 and its Thunderhead prospect by June 2008, according to IHS Energy. The unit is several miles south of production from the southwestern flank of Prudhoe Bay Field. Anadarko Petroleum Corp., The Woodlands, Texas, operates Jacob's Ladder in all or parts of sections 29 through 32-9n-17e; 25 through 36-9n-16e; 1 through 3 and 10 through 15-8n-16e; 1 through 18 and 22 through 24-8n-17e; and 3 through 10 and 16 through 21-8n-18e, Umiat Meridian. Target formations are the Liburne (Wahoo formation) and Sadlerochit (Ivishak formation) groups. Anadarko plans a Lisburne test by June 2007. The Jacob's Ladder Unit is six to 18 miles southeast of the Prudhoe Bay Unit. 2 Irving, Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska also plans a wildcat on its Cronus Exploratory Unit some 14 miles southeast of Nuiqsut in Section 8-8n-6e, Umiat Meridian. The well is more than six miles west-northwest of the Meltwater Pool in the Kuparuk River Unit. There, the #1 Meltwater North in Section 20-8n-73 flowed 3,892 bbl. of oil, 2.2 million cu. ft. of gas and 50 bbl. of water a day from Seabee perforations between 5,620-70 ft. 3 A second remote wildcat will focus a deep exploration program in south-central Washington state for EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., Calgary. The company proposes a 14,000-ft. test in Section 5-11n-23e, about 10 miles north of Sunnyside in eastern Yakima County for its #11-5 Anderson. The well in the previously undrilled township is in an area in which Shell Exploration & Production, Houston, is planning a new seismic survey, and is 21 miles southwest of EnCana's first wildcat, the #1-6 Anderville Farms in Section 6-14n-25e in southwestern Grant County. The well was being drilled at press time. 4 Orchard Petroleum Inc., Ventura, Calif., has staked the #1-10 Edge wildcat in Sutter County, Calif. Orchard proposes to drill in Section 10-13n-2e to an undisclosed formation and depth but the target is gas. The proposed well will be 9.7 miles southwest of the town of Yuba City and 1.3 miles northeast of Everglade Field, which produces gas from the Forbes formation. 5 Bill Barrett Corp., Denver, posted a discovery with a deep directional wildcat near Peter's Point Field about 21 miles northeast of Sunnyside in northeastern Carbon County, Utah. The company's #6-7D-13-17 Peter's Point-Unit Federal tested at 11.4 million cu. ft. of gas equivalent a day from Dakota, Entrada and Navajo after being drilled to a measured depth of 15,349 ft. The company drilled the well from a surface site in partial Section 6-13s-7e to a bottomhole location in Section 7. The company said it drilled to a 4,800-acre structural closure in the West Tavaputs area, according to IHS Energy. The well may also hide production behind pipe in the Price River (Mesaverde), Wasatch and North Horn formations. The wildcat is on the eastern flank of Peter's Point Field, about 0.75-mile southeast of the discovery well, which produced from Mesaverde and Mancos at about 9,100 ft. 6 The Brushy Basin member of the Morrison formation produced 7.95 million cu. ft. of gas and 50 bbl. of water in 26 days for Royale Energy Inc., San Diego, at a wildcat well on the southeastern flank of Utah's Uinta Basin. The company's #2 Moon Canyon is in Section 9-16s-21e, about 39 miles northeast of Green River in northern Grand County. The company drilled the well to 10,300 ft. and found more than 50 ft. of gas-filled sands in one formation and several additional formations with production potential. The well is a mile northwest of Moon Ridge Field. 7 A tri-lateral horizontal completion in Bakken flowed 396 bbl. of oil, 202,000 cu. ft. of gas and 94 bbl. of water a day at the #1-24H Tornado wildcat drilled by Slawson Exploration Co., Wichita, Kan. The well, in Section 24-25n-54e about 20 miles southeast of Brockton in northern Richland County, Mont., produced from laterals drilled north, northwest and west with bottomhole locations in the same section. 8 Headington Oil Co. LP, Dallas, flowed 168 bbl. of oil, 74,400 cu. ft. of gas and 320 bbl. of water a day from its #12X-34 Nagle in Section 24-22n-59e in southeastern Richland County, Mont. The single-lateral well in the Bakken, drilled north-northeast, reached a total depth of 16,828 ft. in Section 27. The company reported production of 2,354 bbl. of oil, 1.04 million cu. ft. of gas and 4,486 bbl. of water in 14 days in August. 9 A flow of 250 bbl. of oil, 200,000 cu. ft. of gas and 50 bbl. of water a day rewarded JMG Exploration Inc., an affiliate of Jed Oil Inc., Calgary, at its #3-9HD Rindel Middle Bakken siltstone discovery in eastern Divide County, N.D. The well in Section 9-162n-96w produces from a fractured openhole lateral drilled to a measured depth of 12,125 ft. Production comes from a 9-ft.-thick reservoir with 6% porosity, 25% water saturation and 800:1 gas-oil ratio. Estimating 1.67 million bbl. of oil in place at the site, the company calculates a 10% recovery, or 167,625 bbl. of oil. The well established Juno Field in all of sections 8, 9 and 16. 10 Whiting Oil & Gas Corp., Denver, tapped Birdbear (Nisku) for a horizontal discovery on the Billings Nose in western North Dakota for 230 bbl. of oil, 161,000 cu. ft. of gas and 77 bbl. of water a day. The #23-17H H.A. Mackoff-Fee is about 15 miles northwest of Medora in Section 17-142n-102w in western Billings County. It produces from a single openhole lateral from 11,043 to 15,980 ft. with a bottomhole location in Section 8. 11 A new wildcat will evaluate production potential from Leo to 2,700 ft. on the Black Hills Uplift about a mile southwest of Edgemont in Section 11-9s-2e in western Fall River County, in South Dakota for Peter K. Roosevelt, Denver. The nearest production to the company's #2-11 Miller-State comes from Edgemont Field, more than four miles southeast. That field has produced 204,000 bbl. of oil with 1.8 million bbl. of water since 1980 and currently produces at stripper rates from one active well. 12 Yates Petroleum Corp., Artesia, N.M., stepped out from its discovery well on the Seaver Unit in the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming to bring in a Lewis and Mesaverde producer flowing 708,000 cu. ft. of gas and 25 bbl. of water a day. The #3 Seaver Unit confirmation well for the field is in Section 9-23n-95w in northeastern Sweetwater County. The well produces from one fractured Lewis zone and three fractured Mesaverde intervals between 10,957 and 13,274 ft., according to IHS Energy. 13 Zinke & Trumbo Inc., Tulsa, Okla., will continue its Overthrust Belt program in Wyoming with another wildcat near its gas discovery from the Amsden and Madison interval. The #35-1 Hams Fork is five miles east of Kemmerer in Section 35-21n-115w in southern Lincoln County. The company plans to drill to 11,185 ft., six miles south of its #1-35 Waterfall-Federal discovery in Section 35-22n-115w that produced 906.8 million cu. ft. of gas, 11,642 bbl. of condensate and 806 bbl. of water in its first six months. 14 Wahoo, Neb.-based Great Plains Energy Inc. permitted a 4,300-ft. wildcat to the D and J sands two miles south of Bridgeport in Morill County in western Nebraska. The #1 Laux Family, in Section 8-19n-50w, is on the northeastern Denver-Julesburg Basin about three miles southeast of Bridgeport Field. That field has produced 2.04 million bbl. of oil, 380.8 million cu. ft. of gas and 21.9 million bbl. of water since it was discovered in 1969. The five wells in the field produced 1,024 bbl. of oil and 55,995 bbl. of water last July, according to IHS Energy. 15 Kaler Oil Co., Gainesville, Texas, staked a couple of wildcats to look for oil in Pennsylvanian Lansing-Kansas City on the Cambridge Arch in northwestern Hitchcock County in southwestern Nebraska. The #4-27 Sutton, in Section 27-4n-35w, is almost 2.5 miles west-southwest of Bishop Field where Kaler completed a well last summer for 31 bbl. of oil a day from Lansing-Kansas City above 4,350 ft. The other wildcat is the #8-5 Stamm in Section 5-3n-38w in neighboring Dundy County. That well is a 4,700-ft. stepout from Hoover Field and is 16 miles north-northwest of Binkelman.