SmallCapPower | March 30, 2016: Surviving this low oil-price environment has been 
challenging for both large and smaller industry players. Yet in some regions of North America exploration continues, and companies such as Saturn Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMI) are attempting to prove that it’s possible to make money even with sub-US$40 a barrel oil prices.
Saturn owns 376,800 acres of exclusive oil & gas rights in the Williston Basin, a large sedimentary basin 
beneath Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana and North Dakota. It has quickly become one of the fastest growing, 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).
While expensive shale drilling in the Basin has all but dried up, Saturn Minerals’ wells in northeastern Williston are shallow and vertical, and will reach under 1,000 meters in depth, which means that drilling costs are significantly lower (Estimated at about C$830,000 to drill, tie-in and complete, according to Oilprice.com).
In a previous interview with SmallCapPower.com, Saturn Minerals CEO Stan Szary said he expects production costs in Saturn’s area of exploration to be among the lowest in the Williston Basin.
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,” he said.
On February 9, 2016, shares of Saturn Minerals powered more than 51% higher after the Company announced that it had made a new oil discovery in three separate potential pay zones at a well (9A-5) on its Bannock Creek project in Saskatchewan, which lies in the northeastern Williston Basin. The Company also said these pay zones represent a total cumulative thickness of eight meters and are situated within the Herald, Upper Yeoman and Lower Yeoman formations, all well-known historic oil producers throughout the Williston Basin.
Then, on March 29, 2016, Saturn Minerals reported that all zones of interest at Bannock Creek were tested and the results of the completions program are being analyzed to determine the most efficient production methodology for the 9B-5 well, adding that it will adhere to a “tight-hole status” and will prohibit insiders from trading the Company’s shares.
Saturn Minerals’ shareholders, meanwhile, will likely be eagerly awaiting the Company’s next news release pertaining to Bannock Creek. Further encouraging results could cause land values in the region to climb, all of which would be great news for Saturn and its investors.
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