1 Shell Offshore Inc., Houston, received awards for 84 oil and gas leases among the 117 leases awarded in the Beaufort Sea offshore Alaska as the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced winners of the latest Outer Continental Lease Sale 195. The acreage assembly marks a return to Alaska for Shell. The company says it believed it could build a significant position in Alaska, starting in the Beaufort. The MMS received more than $45 million in high bids in the sale. 2 Pioneer Natural Resources Co., Irving, Texas, farmed into the Cosmopolitan Unit of ConocoPhillips Alaska, in Alaska's Cook Inlet, with an agreement to acquire up to half of the unit and potentially become operator. According to Pioneer, three wells and a sidetrack have been drilled to date and have substantiated a significant oil column. The companies plan a 3-D seismic survey later this year. The agreement starts Pioneer with a 10% interest. To earn additional shares, the company will pay a disproportionate percentage of the development costs. The unit covers some 25,000 acres approximately 120 miles southwest of Anchorage and two miles off the Kenai Peninsula. 3 Aspen Exploration Corp., Denver, found approximately 80 ft. of potential gas pay in Forbes zones shallower than 4,800 ft. at its #11 Johnson Unit in Malton Black Butte Field in Tehama County, Calif. The well is in Section 31-23n-3w. The company's #31-1 Merrill also encountered 200 ft. of potential net gas pay in Forbes and Kione intervals in the same field. Merrill Field has produced 140 billion cu. ft. of gas. 4 Carpinteria, Calif.-based Venoco Inc. will drill the #1 South Suisun wildcat in Solano County, Calif., to look for gas at an undisclosed depth. The well is in Section 10-3n-1w, some 6.2 miles northeast of Port Chicago, Calif. It is two miles southeast of Suisun Bay Field and 600 ft. northeast of the #1 Sangria well in the same section. 5 Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co. will run production casing and attempt completion at its #1-32 Midland Trail wildcat in Railroad Valley, Nev., about 31 miles south-southwest o the town of Currant in Section 32-6n-56e, northeastern Nye County. According to IHS Energy, the well penetrated 100 ft. of Devonian lime with favorable mud log oil shows about 100 ft. high to the company's target. Tri-Valley planned a 7,500-ft. Devonian test. The field is almost 11 miles southwest of Grant Canyon Field, the most prolific field discovered in Nevada at more than 20 million bbl. It produced from Devonian Guilmette/Simonson. The company says it plans two more wildcats in the state about 60 miles north of the Midland Trail well on its Oil Springs lease. 6 A third wildcat will be drilled in northeastern Utah by Denver independent Elk Resources Inc. The #13-15 Rogers, in Section 16-7s-20e in western Uintah County, is more than five miles east-southeast of the town of Randlett. According to IHS Energy, the well will look at Mesaverde gas potential to about 11,000 ft. The closest gas production is 1.5 miles east where Brennan Bottom Field produces from zones shallower than 4,000 ft. The company also has permitted the #13-17 Wall to Mesaverde at 14,500 ft. a mile west of the new wildcat and the #3-22 Nielsen to Mesaverde at 11,000 ft. more than a mile east. 7 Wolverine Gas & Oil Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., has permitted another wildcat on the Utah Hingeline about two miles northeast of Salina in north-central Utah. The #21-1 Wolverine-Federal-Twist Canyon will drill directionally to evaluate the Navajo zone from a location in Section 17-21s-1e in northern Sevier County, to a bottomhole location southeast in Section 21 of the same township and range. The company anticipates a measured depth of 11,670 ft. with a true vertical depth of 9,400 ft. The new well is about 14 miles north-northeast of Covenant Field, which the company discovered last year with the 317-1 Kings Meadows Ranches pumping an initial 803 bbl. of oil and 75 bbl. of water a day from First and Second Navajo zones. In that well's first 11 months online, it produced 228,060 bbl. of oil and 17,584 bbl. of water and enticed other companies to begin exploration on the Hingeline. The Twist Canyon wildcat is more than four miles west-northwest of an 8,297-ft. dry hole drilled in 1971. 8 Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp., Denver, posted an apparent discovery as it recovered oil on a drillstem test at a Mission Canyon wildcat 14 miles east-southeast of Plentywood in eastern Sheridan County in northeastern Montana. The #8-16 State, in Section 16-34n-57e, flowed 17 bbl. of oil to frac tanks and offered another 77 bbl. of oil in the pipe during a drillstem test of an interval between 7,570 and 7,615 ft. Kodiak and its partners control approximately 7,800 acres in the area. The nearest production is from Lowell Field, about a mile southeast, where the #1-A Christensen pumped 107 bbl. of oil, 59.1 million cu. ft. of gas and 601,948 bbl. of water from Red River between July 1980 and October 1999. Recompleted in Mission Canyon in 2001, it produced 23,614 bbl. of oil and 272,874 bbl. of water through January 2005. 9 A remote wildcat 14 miles north of Red Lodge in Carbon County, Mont., is being planned by EOG Resources Inc., Houston. The company applied for a permit to drill a wildcat, yet to be named, in Section 14-5s-20e. The well presumably will evaluate Pennsylvanian and Mississippian zones, according to IHS Energy. The well is in a nonproducing township. The closest production is almost 10 miles south-southeast in the Dry Creek/Dry Creek West field area, which produces from Cretaceous above 2,000 ft. Frontier at about 4,500 ft. and Greybull shallower than 6,600 ft. The closest dry hole was 1.5 miles northeast. 10 Headington Oil Co. LP, Dallas, completed an exploratory well as a discovery on the Nesson Anticline about 14 miles south of Tioga, N.D. The #11X-35 Hove in eastern Williams County produced an undisclosed amount of oil from on open-hole Bakken interval from 10,375 to 15,609 ft. entirely within Section 35-155n-95w. The company has asked North Dakota officials for spacing and field limits to develop the oil pool, according to IHS Energy. The closest Bakken production is more than a mile south, where a 1967 well showed an initial potential of 756 bbl. of oil a day from a 61-ft. Bakken section and produced 62,700 bbl. of oil between September 1967 and July 1969. 11 A wildcat turned into a discovery for Houston-based M3 Energy LLC as it drilled its #1-16 Calf Women on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in eastern McKenzie County, N.D. The well, immediately west of Mandaree in Section 16-149n-94w, produced 47 bbl. of oil, 43,000 cu. ft. of gas and 162 bbl. of water a day from Madison perforations between 9,506-18 ft. The well is about 1.5 miles north of the single-well Squaw Creek discovery, which was first completed in Red River and recompleted in Mission Canyon (Madison) to produce 288,229 bbl. of oil, 274.8 million cu. ft. of gas and 164,832 bbl. of water between late 1988 and March 2005. 12 Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. has asked for drilling permits for two exploratory wells to evaluate Muddy formation gas below the Owl Creek Thrust near Waltman Field in western Natrona County, Wyo. The company wants to drill the #44-7-36-86 East Bullfrog in Section 7-36n-86w off the southwestern flank of Waltman Field, a half-mile from a noncommercial test drilled to 20,105 ft. The other well will be a deep test below 20,000 ft. at the #1 Bullfrog Unit in Section 6-36n-86w. That well was recompleted in 1997 and currently is inactive after producing 3.5 billion cu. ft. of gas from several Cretaceous and Jurassic zones. 13 Davis Petroleum Corp., Denver, plans three remote wildcats on the northwestern flank of the Denver-Julesburg Basin more than 16 miles northeast of Chugwater in Goshen County, Wyo. All three wells will test Muddy potential in Township 22n-65w. The #1-12 C in Section 12 will drill to 8,630 ft., the #8-24 J House in Section 24 is projected to 8,560 ft., and #1-25 Smith is planned to 8,670 ft. in Section 35. 14 Edward Mike Davis, Houston, staked a 4,000-ft Jurassic test in southwestern Keith County, Neb., about 4.5 miles northwest of Brule, according to IHS Energy. The company's #41-1 Grapes, in Section 1-13n-41w, is approximately 10 miles east of Big Springs Field in Deuel County. That field has produced 39 million cu. ft. of gas, 17,550 bbl. of oil and condensate, and 177,900 bbl. of water from Niobrara and D Sand shallower than 3,400 ft. since its discovery in 1950.