The final approval of the unit agreement was subject to the final sanction by the federal government and review and approval by the Arizona state land commissioner of any substantive changes recommended by the federal government.
Ridgeway Arizona Oil has been designated as the unit operator and currently has a 100% working interest ownership in the unit. The unit agreement calls for the orderly development of the unit area over a five year period from the effective date of February 1, 2009 and included a minimum work program of five wells over the initial 12 month period.
In mid 2009, the company requested that, due to the considerable amount of time between conditional approval and final approvals, a 12 month extension be granted to complete the required minimum work program thereby extending the work commitment from the first anniversary to the second anniversary. By letter from the Arizona state land department dated January 6, 2010 that extension has now been granted.
Barry Lasker, CEO of Enhanced Oil, said: “The approval of the St Johns unit agreement by the state of Arizona, the bureau of land management and other stakeholders is a significant milestone in moving us further along to developing the St Johns resource.
“This is the first unit agreement of its kind in the state of Arizona and has reached its conclusion through many hours of discussion and collaboration between Ridgeway, its lawyers and consultants and members of the Arizona State Land Department.”
