Brighton Oil to acquire oil & gas mineral rights in New Mexico and Arizona
  by: OilOnline
  Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Brighton Oil has entered into a lease agreement to acquire a fifty percent working interest in 951,230.64 acres of oil and gas mineral rights within the Holbrook Basin of Arizona and the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. An assessment of that leasehold has anticipated eighteen prospective areas of oil and gas potential.

During the initial term of the agreement, Brighton Oil plans to engage in strategic joint ventures with industry partners to fully exploit the prospective acreage. Brighton will be acquiring drilling rigs in order to provide the drilling services for the projects. The company expects to begin its exploration activities within the leasehold during the next quarter of 2006.

The San Juan Basin, located primarily in New Mexico, is the second largest natural gas field in the contiguous United States. The basin contains more than 300 oil and gas fields that produce from Paleozoic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary reservoirs. A geologic assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey discussed 50.6 trillion cubic feet of potential undiscovered natural gas in the basin, which is already rated as one of the richest natural gas reserves in the world.

The Holbrook Basin is located in east-central Arizona and contains Paleozoic rocks including sabkha deposits of Permian age. The sabkha deposits consist primarily of fine-grained red beds that are locally interbedded with limestone, anhydrite and salt. The Holbrook Basin sabkha deposits are similar in age and characteristics to the deposits found in the Permian Basin of West Texas.

The Holbrook Basin has produced commercial quantities of helium, contains a large discovery of carbon dioxide and has recorded numerous shows of oil and gas in exploration wells. The drilling depths in the basin range from 1,000 feet to 6,000 feet.

The approximate purchase price is $4.7 million, with a closing date on or before November 15, 2006, and is subject to certain terms and conditions of the purchase agreement.