HOUSTON , March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southern Star Energy Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SSEY), (the "Company" or "Southern Star"), an exploration and production company with reserves and production from leases located in northern Louisiana , today announced that the Boyce-Pate 16-1 Well, the Company's third planned Haynesville test well, spudded on February 19, 2009 . The Company also released results of its first-stage frac results in the L. Moore 20-1 Cotton Valley completion.
The Boyce-Pate 16-1 Well is located in the east-central portion of the Company's producing Sentell Field in Bossier Parish, Louisiana . The Company intends to further delineate the Sentell Field in the Cotton Valley Formation before drilling ahead into the deeper Haynesville Formation in this location, and anticipates announcing results later in March 2009 . Extensive petrophysical data will be collected on this well, data which will be worked into the Company's on-going in-house technical analysis, as well as Core Lab's Regional Haynesville Shale Study. The Company previously announced two successful Haynesville test wells, the Atkins- Lincoln 17-1 and the A.S. Burt 20-1, both of which established the presence of the Haynesville Shale on the Company's acreage position.
Completion operations are underway on the L. Moore 20-1 Well to test multiple prospective intervals in the Upper Davis section of the Cotton Valley Formation. The Company fracture stimulated the first horizon, a fourteen-foot interval between measured depths of 9,086 feet and 9,100 feet, with 78,000 pounds of proppant. This zone is currently testing at approximately 400 thousand cubic feet per day (Mcfd). The Company plans to test this first stage for three to four additional weeks before testing additional intervals.
Pipeline construction activities have commenced to extend the field gathering system southward to the Cash Point 30-1 location in order to accommodate production from selected Cotton Valley intervals at that location. The Company anticipates commencing completion operations on the Cash Point 30-1 Well by early April 2009 .
Dave Gibbs , Southern Star's President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "The Boyce-Pate 16-1 Well is Southern Star's third planned Haynesville test within the Sentell Field. Drilling this well is consistent with our strategic focus to drill Haynesville wells in and among our successful Cotton Valley wells. We announced in 2008 that Southern Star drilled two successful deep vertical test wells. Drilling the Boyce Pate 16-1 underscores our ability to drill wells to test the deeper Haynesville zone, and to operate in challenging market conditions. We remain positive about the future of Southern Star. Positive results in this location would be additional evidence of the quality of our acreage position in two prolific zones and the potential benefit to our investors and our shareholders."