Search for Natural Gas Comes Ashore

Hunt Oil is exploring for petroleum on mainland Nova Scotia. The company is drilling an exploratory, or wildcat, well at a location about 16 kilometers south of Truro, in Colchester County. Plans call for the well to be drilled to a total depth of 1,675 metres, or 5,495 feet.

Drilling operations will begin July 18 and continue for about a month. Samples and test information from the well will require several months study before the company decides whether further exploration is warranted.

The drilling site is on a block of land comprising 299,685 hectares, which the company bid on for exploration rights. The Nova Scotia Petroleum Directorate awarded the rights on May 4, 1999, for a three-year period.

Natural gas was discovered in the area in the early 1990s by a drilling crew of the Department of Natural Resources while they explored for other minerals.

While this is Hunt's first drilling operation in Nova Scotia, the company has become a significant player in the Atlantic Canadian petroleum exploration scene. Hunt has explored onshore in western Newfoundland and holds the rights to two offshore blocks east of Cape Breton Island.

Hunt Oil is an independent, privately owned oil company based in Dallas, Texas.