On February 2, 2023 Herman L. Loeb LLC, as a majority owner (75%) in partnership with KWR Ventures, completed a purchase from CNX Resources Corporation that provides the oil and gas mineral ownership to approximately 37,000 undeveloped acres (≈58 square miles) in Gibson, Pike, and Warrick counties located in southwestern Indiana. The entire acreage block is generally surrounded by several historical oil field discoveries in the basin that have each produced an average of 1.8 million bbls of crude oil dating back to the 1940’s up to present times. The acreage position has been unavailable to oil exploration endeavors as it was owned by and restricted by the surface coal mining operations of Peabody Energy and Black Beauty Coal Company for the past 80+ years until now. This exciting and unique opportunity contains 3 potentially distinct exploration prospects, some of which may be leased out to other interested parties in the future. The primary objective for us will be to explore the Pennsylvanian and Mississippian sands which lay in the 1200-to-2000-foot depths as one of the prospects. The second prospect includes the deeper potential from middle Mississippian carbonates, Devonian limestones, and Silurian reefs. The third prospect would include unconventional gas exploration in the New Albany & Maquoketa shales similar to the Point Pleasant / Utica shales found in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The initial phase to begin by mid-2023 will include executing 50+ miles of 2D seismic allowing correlation between producing fields in a 360-degree approach to help identify the first round of test well locations. We anticipate drilling at least 6 wildcat wells in 2023 which will be followed by additional geological mapping and seismic activity to further define and hopefully lead to a potential field discovery later in 2024. The project will be added to the Company portfolio as a long-term asset play.
