The best place to look for oil is where other large discoveries have already been found. Thus, Canadian energy junior Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMI), with its 376,800 acres of exclusive oil & gas rights in the Williston Basin, seems to be well positioned for success.
“We are exploring for oil in one of the best wildcat play areas in North America and see the tremendous technical merits of this multi-formation shallow (1000 metres +/-) play,” Saturn Minerals CEO Stan Szary told SmallCapPower.com (See video of what this wildcat play looks like: Saturn Minerals’ video)
Indeed the Williston Basin, a large sedimentary basin beneath Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana and North Dakota, has quickly become the fastest growing, financed, onshore hydrocarbon producing regions in the world since 2006, with an estimated 24 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves valued at $2.4 trillion as stated by Harold Hamm CEO of Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR): http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2014/09/layer-cake/
Other Canadian oil players such as Husky Energy (TSX: HSE), Cenovous Energy (TSX: CVE) have already made early moves into the region.
Saturn Minerals describes itself as having the largest 2 blocks in the northern Williston Basin and is actively exploring for new pools of hydrocarbons similar to those in the extended region. The company also has a strong technical consulting team, which is fresh off a $100 million merger with Crescent Point (NYSE:CPG) for its 70 successful wells of production just south in the Basin.
Saturn Minerals estimates the first exploratory well costs to come in at about $500,000 and these hard costs will go down proportionally. Mr. Szary added, “The higher netbacks (revenue from the oil, less all costs associated with getting the oil to market) we will realize holds a tremendous advantage in Saturn’s area and this would be significant. Production costs are estimated at about $20 a barrel and possibly lower, whereas Bakken oil in other areas of the Williston Basin can be $60 a barrel or even higher.”
Saturn Minerals’ exploration work has yielded some encouraging results thus far, including its early results from seismic which encountered a large, closed structure at the Red River interval, which the company believes compares directly to the analogous fault bounded “Tyvan” Oil pools that contain upwards of 15 million barrels of recoverable light crude from each structure with individual wells producing at 150 barrels of oil per day.
“We are taking this one step at a time. We did extensive regional exploration finding live oil seeps, great oil source and reservoir rock and trap & migration systems during our large Karolina Coal discovery in 2011. We then acquired our large land package of 1,500 square kms. We now have assembled the best team of Oil professionals to reduce the risk further for our shareholders to ultimately achieve a new oil discovery on our large properties,” Mr. Szary said.
Saturn Minerals Inc. currently has a market capitalization of approximately$18 million with 115 million shares outstanding.
To learn more about Saturn Minerals, you can view their initiation research report and corporate video on their SmallCapPower.com Investor Hub: Here
About Saturn Minerals:
Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMI) is a junior Canadian Energy Company with a project focus on the Northern Williston Basin of Eastern Saskatchewan. This region of the Williston Basin is one of the last highly accessible, on-shore oil and gas areas in North America. The Northern Williston Basin contains many of the same oil bearing formations that are located in the central and southern parts of the basin, which are found in Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Montana. Saturn first encountered oil during successful coal exploration that discovered the 89 metre thick “Karolina” Coal seam in 2011. Saturn now has two of the largest oil blocks (376,800 acres) in Saskatchewan and is advancing this high impact conventional oil asset. Saturn has a strategic ownership in Inowending Exploration & Development Corp., a First Nations owned exploration and Development Company co-founded by Saturn with a consortium of Saskatchewan First Nations active in Canada’s Prairie Provinces.www.saturnminerals.com
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