[url=https://www.sweetgrassdevelopment.org/sweetgrass/news-&-events/?item=3061]Mooncor Oil & Gas to Acquire 320 Sections in Toole and Teton Counties in Montana[/url]
While the press release does not reveal the target of the acquisition, industry insiders have informed the Sun Times that Mooncor is acquiring Primary Petroleum Company USA, Inc. leases. The size of the leasehold, as well as the involvement of a JV (Joint Venture) partner, OXY USA, and the description of drilled wells do seem to confirm that the target of the acquisition is Primary Petroleum.
Primary Petroleum is based in Calgary. Earlier this year Primary, through a reverse takeover, joined with Keek, a Canadian social media website operator.
According to the Montana Board of Oil and Gas database, Primary drilled nine wells in Teton and Pondera Counties. The company has one remaining Permit To Drill, for the Benton Bench 16-5-28-4, located in Pondera County at 28N 4W S5. Eight well permits have expired.
In all, Primary has over 30 wells listed in the database; some, such as the Stockman National Bank 1 in Toole County, were acquired by Primary as they acquired acreage. The Stockman Bank well was drilled in 1927, long before Primary existed. None of the Primary wells are in production.
One well, the Spring Hill 14-34-27-6HZ, did have limited production from the Lodgepole Formation, just above the Bakken Formation. That wellsite has a pump-jack and tank battery.
While Primary was drilling in the area, the hope of finding commercial quantities of oil in the area brought others to Teton and surrounding counties. Jim Bass' Lonesome Dove, Fairways Exploration and Production and Wexco were among those that acquired area mineral leases; only Primary and Fairways have actually drilled wells, with Fairways punching a test hole on the Boone and Crockett Club's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch.
Primary's presence even stirred interest as far away as Cascade and Lewis & Clark Counties, with Texas based Sanchez Energy picking up leases in those two counties.
Interest and optimism seem to be returning to the Rocky Mountain Front. The Sun Times recently announced that BNV Energy,LLC plans to begin drilling soon, hoping to strike gas at a well on the Milford Colony south of Augusta while Montana based Augusta Exploration, LLC will be permitting a Bakken well near the site of the Krone 31-32, drilled by Shell in 1962.