BAKERSFIELD, Calif., Dec. 10, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Tri-Valley Corporation (AMEX:TIV) commenced operations to drill its Elk Ridge Natural Gas Prospect later this month, it was announced today. The prospect is up structure from a Nuevo Energy commercial discovery in 2000 and is further defined by 3-D seismic.
Located between the billion barrel Elk Hills and South Belridge oil fields 40 miles west of Bakersfield, Calif., the Elk Ridge Prospect targets a speculative potential of 25 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The well will also help define several other prospects indicated in the 50 square mile 3-D survey comprising Tri-Valley's play.
Tri-Valley has four other prospects in various stages of testing and completion. Two of these have exceptional amounts of oil and gas in place in "tight" formations which require additional treatment to extract the product at commercial rates. Another is being perforated in successive zones in search of commercial production and the fourth is awaiting arrival of a production rig to begin zonal perforating.
All of these prospects are part of the inventory of the Company's TVOG Opus I Drilling Program LP, an investor-owned exploration program comprised of 26 very large oil and gas targets in California and Nevada which Tri-Valley Corporation manages while its subsidiary, Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co., handles the actual field operations including prospect generation, minerals leasing, drilling, completing, producing and marketing.
"It is our hope to close 2003 and enter 2004 with a grand crescendo of commercial completions on these exceptionally large targets," said F. Lynn Blystone, president and chief executive officer.
Tri-Valley Corporation and its subsidiaries, Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co. and Tri-Valley Power Corporation are headquartered in Bakersfield, Calif. The Company is entering its 41st year of business as a successful operating company and for 31 years has been a full reporting 12 (g) publicly traded Delaware Corporation. Tri-Valley Corporation stock is publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol "TIV" in the United States and is also traded in Europe on the Berlin and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges under the symbol "TVC WKN 911919." Our company websites, which include all SEC filings, are www.tri-valleycorp.com and www.tri-valley.de.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events and performance could vary materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements which includes such words and phrases as exploratory, wildcat, prospect, speculates, unproved, prospective, very large, expect, potential, etc. Among the factors that could cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially are risks and uncertainties discussed in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2003, and the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002.