HOUSTON, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE: HNR) announced today the commencement of drilling operations on the Hunter No. 1 well on its Starks natural gas and condensate prospect in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Starks is the first exploration prospect to be drilled in Harvest's recently announced Gulf Coast area of mutual interest (AMI) with a private company. The AMI participants have secured a 6,800 acre lease position on the prospect. Mobilization of Helmerich and Payne Rig 137 to the drilling location commenced on August 25 and the well is expected to spud around September 1, 2008.
The Hunter No. 1 is targeted to test a large 3-D seismic amplitude anomaly associated with the geopressured Vicksburg section at a total depth of 12,000 feet. Drilling is anticipated to require about 30 days, and will be followed by a 15-30 day production testing period if warranted. A successful commercial test on this well would result in an appraisal and development drilling program on the discovery, which would likely be undertaken in late 2008 and 2009. The well is being drilled as a tight hole, and therefore no further reports will be made available until testing and evaluation of results is complete.
Harvest President and CEO James Edmiston said, "We are excited to see the initiation of our US drilling activity on the Starks prospect in our Gulf Coast AMI. We have a number of additional ideas and leads within the AMI which will be high-graded if Starks is successful. We anticipate the AMI to be a source of short cycle time exploration and development drilling opportunities over the next few years."
About Harvest Natural Resources
Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. headquartered in Houston, Texas, is an independent energy company with principal operations in Venezuela, exploration assets in the United States, Indonesia, West Africa and China and business development offices in Singapore and the United Kingdom. For more information visit the Company's website at http://www.harvestnr.com.
This press release may contain projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. They include estimates and timing of expected oil and gas production, oil and gas reserve projections of future oil pricing, future expenses, planned capital expenditures, anticipated cash flow and our business strategy. All statements other than statements of historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. Although Harvest believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from Harvest's expectations as a result of factors discussed in Harvest's 2007 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other public filings.
SOURCE Harvest Natural Resources, Inc.
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