Stock Symbol: TSX: VUL
Shares issued: 35,278,384
ST. JOHN'S, July 17 /CNW/ - Vulcan Minerals Inc. ("the Company" TSX-V:
VUL), the Company is pleased to announce that it has entered into an arm's
length agreement to merge its 50% interest in offshore exploration license
1098, Western Newfoundland with the license owners of the adjacent exploration
license 1097 through the formation of a new private exploration company, NWest
Energy Inc. (NWest). In return Vulcan will receive 30% of the outstanding
shares of Nwest making it the largest single shareholder. The remaining
shareholders are the current private owners of the licenses, all of whom bring
extensive expertise to NWest by virtue of their technical, marketing and
financial skills. Nwest will retain a management and consulting team to carry
out its business plan. The immediate focus of NWest will be the compilation
and interpretation of existing data on both licenses towards attracting joint
venture partners. The licenses are currently covered by approximately 2000
line km of good to excellent quality seismic data. Given the buoyant energy
market, NWest will be in a position to effectively market the petroleum
prospectivity of its licenses.
Collectively, licenses 1098 and 1097 cover 640,000 acres of the Paleozoic
Anticosti Basin. Several targets up to 150 square kilometres in areal size
were seismically identified by a previous landowner. The larger targets exist
in the foreland basin, an area that has never been drill tested in the eastern
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The licenses are adjacent to the shoreline of Western
Newfoundland where excellent petroleum source rocks and reservoirs occur on
shore. For example, north of the licenses at Port au Choix, an uplifted and
exhumed oil field has been geologically recognized in outcrop over an area of
approximately 80 square kilometres with an inferred paleo-reservoir thickness
of up to 100 metres. The Company believes that the offshore licenses have the
potential to contain similar oilfields that remain buried within down thrown
fault blocks. Maps locating the licenses and onshore geology are posted on the
Company's website (http://www.vulcanminerals.ca/). The relevant discussion is
near the end of the slide show.
Licenses 1097 and 1098 were issued on January 16, 2006 and have a
five-year initial term followed by a four-year secondary term if a well is
drilled in the initial term.
The creation of NWest will allow a focussed and collaborative effort to
advance exploration of the offshore licenses. The Company's focus will remain
the onshore Bay St. George Basin where field operations will re-commence this
fall.
The TSX Venture Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
%SEDAR: 00003997E
