Triangle Petroleum provides update on Hants activities

Triangle Petroleum has updated the Maritimes Basin shale gas exploration program in Hants County.

Triangle president Howard Anderson said in an Aug. 28 news release, "Triangle has embarked on its 2008 multi-well exploration program in the Windsor Block. The N-14-A well looks very encouraging, with greater than 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) of prospective gas-bearing shale and sandstones. This is just the first of several wells planned to enable Triangle and its partners to more fully evaluate the Horton Bluff shale resource.

Anderson also noted that, “as data from the N-14-A, O-61-C, and subsequent wells are evaluated, the company and its partners will be able to design and implement an appropriate completion and testing strategy, with a goal of providing the signposts towards commerciality of the Horton Bluff shale.”

Nova Scotia Energy Department petroleum resources manager Kim Doane said that besides Kennetcook, the other site is near the Walton area between East and West Hants. The area is relatively large. “The project is at the early stages,” Doane noted. “They are following all the rules,” she said, “and they are involved in the community.”

She noted that companies are looking at sites that wouldn’t have attracted attention in the past. This is due to more limited resource supplies and sources.

Extensive suite obtained

In the Windsor Block -- 516,000 gross acres near Kennetcook -- the company's first vertical exploration well of 2008, N-14-A, has been drilled to a depth of 8,500 feet (2,600 meters). Drilling encountered Horton Bluff shale at a depth of 3,600 feet (1,100 meters), and went through a total of 4,900 feet (1,500 meters) of shale and interbedded sands before terminated in the lower Horton Bluff.

An extensive suite of open hole logs has been obtained over the entire shale interval. Log and lab analyses are currently underway in Calgary and Houston. The highest gas response was observed while drilling the interval between 4,200 and 8,200 feet (1,300 to 2,500 meters). Preliminary analysis of the shales below 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) indicate higher thermal maturity and diminished gas response, so the decision was made to suspend drilling at 8,500 feet (2,600 meters) and to set seven-inch intermediate casing.

By setting the large intermediate casing, the company retains the option to either deepen or drill out horizontally, depending on formation evaluation and completion results in the vertical well.

Triangle owns a minimum 45 per cent working interest in the well, and is the operator.

Second well

The company’s second vertical exploration well in 2008, O-61-C, was spudded late last month. This well is located approximately 22 kilometers west of N-14-A, and is located in a separate fault block from N-14-A, extending the trend from the two Kennetcook test wells drilled by Triangle in 2007.

The planned total depth is 9,900 feet (3,000 meters). This well has been positioned using seismic to test the Horton Bluff shales and to evaluate potential conventional reservoirs in the Windsor group.

Triangle also owns a minimum 45 per cent working interest in this well, and is the operator.

Triangle Petroleum Corporation is an exploration company focused on emerging Canadian shale gas projects covering 584,000 gross acres in the Maritimes Basin in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. An experienced team comprising technical and business skills has been formed to optimize the company's opportunities through its operating subsidiaries, Triangle USA Petroleum Corporation in the United States and Elmworth Energy Corporation in Canada.

For more information visit www.trianglepetroleum.com.