LAS VEGAS - Petrol Oil and Gas Inc. initiated a $10 million drilling and development plan for its Coal Creek project located in southeast Kansas. The Coal Creek plan involves drilling and developing approximately 82,000 acres of coal bed methane (CBM) and other gas reserves in Coffey County, Kan., for which Petrol holds a 100 percent working interest.

To support the development activities, Petrol filed 30 drilling intents and finished drilling two salt-water disposal (SWD) wells in the area. The entire project is anticipated to encompass about 500 production wells, 4 SWD wells, and several large networks of gas gathering pipelines and processing systems.

"We are excited to commence drilling on this property," said Paul Branagan, Petrol's chairman and CEO. "As we have already successfully drilled and tested 12 wells on the property for CBM and other natural gas reserves, we have been planning the development of Coal Creek for the past several months while we finalized our recent $50 million financing package."

Petrol's first Coal Creek production wells are currently being drilled in the Burlington area along with one of the SWD wells. The other SWD well was just drilled in the Waverly area, roughly eight miles to the northeast of the Burlington area.

Petrol's existing 12 CBM wells will be incorporated with 10 new production wells to form the basis for Phase I development of the Burlington area. Phase I development of the Waverly area will start with 18 new production wells.

Publication date: 12/19/2005