Expected to arrive on Monday October 31, the delayed exploration rig will move immediately to start drilling the McClure Ranch prospect.

Drilling was initially scheduled to start in September, but rig availability is very restricted in California, the company said earlier this month.

Other quarter highlights in the Basin include an aggressive leasing program, a completed A$7.5 million funding program and 100% acquisition of the project through wholly-owned subsidiary Pacrim US Energy Corp.

“The land bank is now in excess of 50,000 acres under lease, an increase of 30,000 acres from an initial position of approximately 20,000 acres leased,” managing director Rodney Foster said.

Pacrim said the project contained numerous ready-to-drill prospects, each with multiple objectives. Prepared well sites at the most advanced prospects, including McClure Ranch and Plymire Road, are up-dip of previous gas shows targeting the apex of structures with four-way closure, it said.

In addition, recently acquired data had improved the project's chance of success, according to Foster.

“Targeting has been further refined with the benefit of recently obtained information from seismic data along with well control from previous drilling in the district,” he said.

He added that availability of nearby pipelines and gas transmission infrastructure would enable fast tracking of production into a buoyant market upon a gas discovery.

Also during the quarter, Pacrim completed a fully underwritten shareholder purchase plan to raise $7,500,000 to advance the Northern Sacramento project, as well as providing working capital for existing projects.

A total of 79,450,000 shares were issued, with 55 million to Nahabedian Exploration Group nominees under the aquisition agreement and the remainder to consultants.