[Pablo2079]

I was hoping some of the more knowledgeable people on this board could comment on the technical challenges to drilling in areas as described below. I realize that it's a lot of basalt to go through, but how does it compare to other challenging areas?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')poradically explored and sparsely drilled during the past several decades, the basin has remained resistant to detailed subsurface characterization by geophysical methods, due to the presence of a thick (3,000-5,000 ft), capping sequence of Miocene known as the Columbia River Basalts. During the late 1990s, U.S.G.S. scientists performed a review of geochemical and test data from six wells penetrating beneath the volcanic cover and concluded that there is strong potential for the existence of a gas-related overpressure cell beginning at depths ranging from 8,300-12,700 ft. Some of the strongest supporting evidence for this conclusion comes from a deep well drilled by Shell Oil in 1983, the 1-9 Burlington Northern, which reached total depth at 17,518 ft. This well reported a flow of gas from Early Tertiary sandstones at a tested rate of 5-6 million cu. ft per day, but was abandoned.