First Helium Inc. ("First Helium" or the "Company") announced receipt of regulatory licensing approval to proceed with the drilling of its 7-15 high impact exploration location, along with its previously licensed proven undeveloped ("PUD") 7-30 location, which has been assigned proved plus probable undeveloped reserves of 196,700 barrels² by Sproule Associates Limited ("Sproule")¹, its independent evaluator. The Company is working to secure drilling and ancillary services to drill both wells in a sequential, cost-effective manner. In preparation, the Company has commenced construction of the 7-30 drilling location.
"With drilling license now in hand for the 7-15 location, we are moving ahead to secure the required services necessary to drill both our 7-30 PUD well along with our high impact Leduc anomaly, 7-15, which on seismic is approximately 5X the areal extent of our successful 1-30 light oil pool discovery," said Ed Bereznicki, President & CEO of First Helium. "With success, the combined oil potential from these two operations would provide immediate cash flow and meaningful near-term value for our shareholders. It would also set the stage to execute on ten additional, highly prospective lower risk drilling locations," added Mr. Bereznicki.
Follow Up Drilling Inventory – 10 Additional Targets Identified on Proprietary 3D Seismic
The Company has identified 10 additional primary Leduc locations using the same interpretation of its proprietary 3D seismic data that identified its 7-30 and the 7-15 targets (See Figure 1). Success in the current drilling program would immediately de-risk these locations for follow-up development.
Each of the 10 Leduc drilling locations also has the potential to encounter one or more of up to six additional shallower formations/zones which have been historically proven to produce oil, and helium-enriched natural gas along the Peace River Arch at Worsley. The Company would look to exploit those potentially economic zones from the same wellbore, and/or drill additional well(s) to accelerate the development of potential discoveries in such an "up hole" zone, once it had extracted all the hydrocarbons economically possible from a successful Leduc well.
Based on historical successful drilling results from the 1-30 and 4-29 Leduc oil wells, which together have produced more than 113,000 barrels of light oil and generated more than $13 million in revenue and $8 million in cash flow, the Company has achieved a direct correlation between its Leduc seismic interpretation and the potential for economic quantities of producible hydrocarbons. Notably, this same seismic signature is seen across all additional drilling locations.
Given the large potential opportunity for scalable growth at Worsley, all on 100% owned lands, the Company will continue to explore strategic partnerships to accelerate development of its extensive asset base.