Harvest Natural Resources Inc., Houston, (NYSE: HNR) reports that drilling of its Hunter No. 1 well on its Starks gas and condensate prospect in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, has started. Starks is the first exploration prospect to be drilled in Harvest’s Gulf Coast area of mutual interest with a private company. The mutual interest participants have secured a 6,800-acre lease position on the prospect. Mobilization of Helmerich and Payne Rig 137 to the drilling location began Aug. 25 and the well is expected to spud by Sept. 1.

Harvest chief executive James Edmiston says Hunter No. 1 will test a large 3-D seismic amplitude anomaly associated with the geopressured Vicksburg section at a total depth of 12,000 feet. Drilling is expected to take 30 days, and will be followed by a 15- to 30-day production testing period if need. 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.

“We are excited to see the initiation of our U.S. drilling activity on the Starks prospect in our Gulf Coast area of mutual interests,” Edmiston says. “We have a number of additional ideas and leads within the area of mutual interest which will be high-graded if Starks is successful. We anticipate the area of mutual interest to be a source of short-cycle time exploration and development drilling opportunities over the next few years.”

Harvest’s principal operations are in Venezuela with exploration assets in the United States, Indonesia, West Africa and China and business development offices in Singapore and the U.K. JAS