NAEG acquires Mason Oil Lease in former Exxon Field
  by: OilOnline
  Friday, October 13, 2006

Native American Energy Group has announced that it has acquired the Mason Oil Lease, located on the Poplar Field in northeast Montana. Although shut-in, the Mason is a well that lines up with the current Bakken trend within NAEG’s targeted leasing area. Bearing in mind that modern, horizontal drilling techniques have made the Bakken zone a well-known producing formation, this acquisition becomes the latest in a series of acquisitions that have strengthened NAEG’s presence in Montana, while increasing its proven & probable reserves and Bakken production potential.

Exxon hit the first discovery well in the Poplar Field in 1951. They operated their wells for a while and then other oil companies like Murphy Oil and Ballard came into the area. A total of 350 wells were drilled in the field and the average amount of production from most wells was 500 BOPD. The formation from which they have primarily produced was the Mission Canyon section of the Charles formation in the Mississippian Period. Research indicates that originally they shot the wrong zone and didn’t see commercial amounts from the Mason, and shut the well in. Century Oil went back in and shot another section and operated the well for a while. The last production on the Mason was around 50 BOPD. It had good shows in the Mission Canyon and Charles C section, also good shows in a 20-foot section called the Nisku. Significant to NAEG is that the Mason Well was cored… and the records and an examination by NAEG’s Geological team of the core sample have revealed a “Bakken” section at 7250 feet. It is to NAEG’s advantage that modern horizontal drilling techniques of recent years now enable operators to economically tap into the real potential of the Bakken formation; whereas, back in the 1950’s & 60’s oil companies simply gathered the oil that was being plentifully released from the zones in the better known producing formations of their time from the conventionally drilled, vertical wells that they owned, and then they basically moved on, leaving much in untapped reserves behind.