Greencastle applies for oil, gas permit in Quebec

2008-06-12 08:11 ET - News Release

Mr. Anthony Roodenburg reports

GREENCASTLE APPLIES FOR OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION PERMIT IN QUEBEC

Greencastle Resources Ltd. has applied for an oil and gas explorationpermit in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec. The permit coversapproximately 6,000 hectares in the Longueil area, east of Montreal, tothe southwest along the trend from the recent gas discovery in theUtica shale by Forest Oil Corporation (NYSE: FST), a U.S. oil and gascompany with a market capitalization of $5-billion. Over the last twoyears, Forest has accumulated approximately 269,000 net acres, underlease or farmout, in the St. Lawrence Lowlands in Quebec. Two verticalpilot wells were drilled in 2007, testing the Utica shale, to a totaldepth of approximately 4,800 feet. Production rates tested up to onemillion cubic feet per day.

TheQuebec government geological map indicates that the permit area appliedfor by Greencastle is underlain by Utica shale, which is the targetformation for much of the current exploration for gas in the area. Dataavailable from the Quebec government show that drilling and geophysicalsurveys in the vicinity were carried out on Jesus Island, Varennes,St-Hubert, Boucherville and St-Denis by several companies, such asSOQUIP, Shell Quebec, Imperial Oil and Laduboro Oil. Other companieshaving interests in permits along trend to the northeast include ForestOil, Talisman Energy, Gastem Inc., Junex Inc., Altai Resources Inc. andMolopo Canada Inc.