Rose Petroleum gets final approval for Paradox seismic survey

Natural resources business Rose Petroleum announced on Tuesday that it has now received all necessary final approvals for its 3D seismic survey on its oil and gas exploration acreage in the Paradox Basin, Utah, and the permitting process for the proposed survey is now complete.

The AIM-traded company had received its final approvals from the Bureau of Land Management on 24 July, which covered the federal acreage of the Paradox Acreage.

It had now received final approval from the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration in respect of the state acreage of the Paradox Acreage.

The SITLA approval was the final stage in the overall permitting process.

Rose said the permits for the seismic survey cover an area of 61 square miles within the Paradox Acreage, and under the terms of the permits, the company is able to commence operations from 1 September.

“The securing of the approvals is a landmark moment for the company and I'd like to thank everybody involved in the permitting process for their hard work and commitment in finally getting us to this point,” said Rose CEO Matthew Idiens.

“We have all been waiting for this moment for some time, to be able to commence operations in the Paradox Basin, which will finally enable us to initiate the value creation from the project.”

As it announced on 2 May, the company assembled a “highly experienced” technical and operational team with specific Paradox Basin experience to assist in the completion of the seismic survey and the subsequent drilling programme.

The team had now been mobilised to finalise the optimisation and design of the survey within the permitted area, Rose’s board confirmed.

“Our seismic shoot team has already commenced the optimisation designs for the final shoot parameters and as a result of their significant operational experience within the basin, we expect to be able to cut costs and maximise the efficiency of the shoot,” Idiens explained.

Rose described the Paradox Basin as a “natural fracture driven basin”, meaning that the drilling process targets ‘fracture swarms’ to enable the natural fracturing to provide the commercial flow rates so ‘hydraulic fracking’ is not usually required.

It said the 3D seismic survey formed an “essential” part of identifying those fracture networks, and therefore was an essential path to unlocking the value of the Paradox Acreage.

The company said it was in dialogue with a number of third parties about potential funding options for both the 3D seismic survey and the subsequent drilling programme.

“We look forward to keeping the market updated in respect of both the progress on the ground and in respect of our funding options,” Matthew Idiens added.