BAKERSFIELD, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Great Valley Production Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tri-Valley Corporation is taking delivery of and mobilizing a production rig to begin a workover program on up to 28 idle wells to boost production on the Temblor Valley oil properties. Currently, another 28 wells are producing about 100 barrels per day from the properties and, as part of its initial development plan, Tri-Valley looks to more than double that rate of production just from reworking the existing wells.
The initial rework program will continue servicing the 56 oil wells while plans are made to begin drilling new wells on the lightly exploited properties. After coring three locations to confirm oil-bearing formation thickness and orientation, Tri-Valley will likely be drilling in the diatomite zone and notes the formation in a nearby well a few hundred feet away on the adjoining lease has pay from 750 feet to 3,150 feet with 26 to 28 gravity oil.
While a consistent 2,400 feet of pay is unlikely on Tri-Valley's nearly 700-acre lease adjoining the prolific South Belridge Oil Field 40 miles west of Bakersfield, California, the Company estimates the potential recovery from an average 200 feet of pay within its lease boundaries could be in the range of 30 million barrels or more for Tri-Valley and its partners using only 500 barrels per acre foot, a common and conservative formula for the area.
"We look for Temblor Valley to be an important component of our goal to have at least one barrel of proven producing reserve behind every outstanding share of Tri-Valley stock and believe we can build the potential resource to reclassify to meet that goal by extensive development work," said F. Lynn Blystone, president and chief executive officer.
Tri-Valley, through its ownership in its managed drilling fund, owns a 25% working interest in the Temblor Valley properties.
In order to be able to service its producing properties as needed, Tri-Valley recently formed Great Valley Production Services, Inc., to acquire a fleet of workover rigs for that purpose and expects to have three or more for that purpose by mid-year. Great Valley is also hiring crews to man the equipment. With nearly 50,000 producing wells and only 500 production rigs in California, Tri-Valley believes it is positioning itself to deliver reward to its partners and shareholders on a faster, more sustained basis with Great Valley Production Services.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events and performance could vary materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements which includes such words and phrases as exploratory, wildcat, prospect, speculates, unproved, prospective, very large, expect, potential, etc. Among the factors that could cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially are risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2005, and the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004.
The Company is in its 43rd year of business as a successful operating company and for 32 years has been a full reporting 12 (g) publicly traded Delaware Corporation. Tri-Valley Corporation stock is publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "TIV" in the United States and is also traded in Europe on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "TVC WKN 911919." Our company websites, which include all SEC filings, are http://www.tri-valleycorp.com/ and http://www.tri-valley.de/.
CONTACT:
F. LYNN BLYSTONE, PRESIDENT & CEO
TRI-VALLEY CORPORATION
800-579-9314
