AIM-listed Black Rock, headed by Australian Ivan Burgess, yesterday said it had entered into a farm-in agreement with an anonymous private North American company. Under the agreement it will earn a majority interest in and operatorship of oil and gas leases covering about 3000 acres in the eastern San Joaquin Basin.

Black Rock will pay the cost of a recently shot 3D seismic program and plans to drill three wells - two targeting oil plays and the other gas – later this year. It also has the right to acquire additional acreage in the immediate area.

“This project again meets our strategic criteria of near-producing assets in proven hydrocarbon provinces,” said managing director Burgess.

“The Miocene Monterey Formation of the San Joaquin Basin is a prolific source rock and the bypassed pay inherently is a lower-risk prospect. If this year’s drilling program is successful, we will evaluate a longer term, multi-year development program.”

Black Rock – which also has a Perth office – has also signed an agreement with private company Kappa Resources Colombia.

This will give Black Rock the opportunity to participate in, and earn a significant interest in, Kappa’s 249,000 acre Las Quinchas Association Contract located in the prolific Middle Magdalena Valley of Colombia, subject to approval by government oil company Ecopetrol.

Burgess said this joint venture was negotiated in order to accelerate development of Kappa’s Arce oil field and the Bukhara-1 oil discovery.

Black Rock is to spend an estimated US$3.2m earning half of Kappa’s rights to the Las Quinchas contract, targeting both light and heavy oil accumulations with potential recoverable reserves of up to 120 million barrels of oil.