The company says it will now move to plug and abandon its Red Bluff Ranch 1-16 well, following disappointing results on the weekend from electronic logs. Meanwhile, the company is preparing to production test Plymire 4-14, which showed commercial promise last week.

Red Bluff Ranch 1-16, which reached a total depth of 1881 metres, was the third well in the program planned for 2005.

“Interpretation by Pacrim Energy’s consultants and advisors has recommended plugging and abandoning the well,” managing director Rodney D Foster said.

Meanwhile, Foster said Pacrim was gearing up to production test the Plymire 4-14 well in mid-January.

The second well of the 2005 program, Plymire 4-14 registered gas in two formations, and had potential for commercial production, he said.

“Gas zones in the Princeton Gorge Formation are interpreted to correlate with gas zones in nearby wells, and the company and its consultants are optimistic in relation to the commercial production potential,” Foster said.

“Gas was also registered from a zone of interbedded sandstones and shales, in excess of 150 feet thick, in a deeper Cretaceous formation.”

He says this zone was similar to that encountered in a nearby historic well in the same stratigraphic interval.

“Any gas flows obtained from such a zone would be highly significant for the company and to the further exploration potential of the region,” Foster said.

Pacrim’s first US well, McClure 1-1 also in the northern Sacramento Basin, failed to encounter any commercial hydrocarbons in either its primary or secondary objectives.

The company holds more than over 50,000 acres of leases in the Northern Sacramento Basin.