Ault Energy completed drilling the Harry O’Neal 20-9 No. 1 in Holmes County, Mississippi, and logged productive oil results across multiple pay zones in the Smackover formation. Completion work has begun on the well, and it is expected to be on stream soon. Ault was formed by parent BitNile this past summer to make strategic oil and gas acquisitions.
The company obtained participation rights with for the O’Neal No. 1 well and future oil wells when it invested $12 million in Ecoark Holdings in June. Ault Energy exercised its participation right and acquired a 40% working interest in the well, which is the first project in an expected long-term partnership between Ecoark and Ault parent companies White River and BitNile, respectively, with the intention to drill approximately 100 oil wells over 5 years.
White River’s next drilling project is expected to be a 14,000-ft-deep vertical oil well in the Wilcox, Austin Chalk, and Tuscaloosa Marine Shale formations in the Coochie oil field in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. White River also plans to drill three consecutive deep vertical drilling projects at approximately 13,000 ft in the Rodessa and Hosston sand formations on the Pisgah Field Lease in Rankin County, Mississippi.