$COIL - PROJECT INDIAN - 100% working interestProject Indian is located in the Bitterwater sub-basin of the Salinas Basin, north of the giant San Ardo Field in Central California. It is a shallow anticline defined by surface geology and well control that may have over 100 million barrels of heavy (11-14 gravity API) oil in place. A well that was drilled and cored extensively by Chevron in 1976 (Tannehill Ranch Corehole #9) showed the oil is trapped in highly porous and permeable basal Pliocene sands at 300-500 feet deep with 300' of claystone cap rock. This accumulation is a strong analog to another discovery made by the founders of CEL at Northwest San Ardo, albeit at a shallower depth.
On January 31, 2009, our wholly-owned subsidiary, Citadel Exploration, LLC ("CEL"), entered into a lease for 688.71 acres of property with Vintage Petroleum, LLC ("Vintage"), a company owned by Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), for the purposes and with the exclusive right of prospecting, exploring, mining, drilling and operating the leased premises for oil and gas.
CEI will develop Project Indian as a thermal recovery operation. The initial phase of evaluation will entail the drilling of 15 vertical wells in late 2011 and cyclic steaming to initiate production. Horizontal development may follow in 2012 following the analysis of steaming and production of vertical wells. Record high long term oil prices make a target of this size extremely attractive.
