Toreador has completed a review of its conventional growth opportunities in France and is working towards the expedited spud of the La Garenne well scheduled for late 2009 pending regulatory approvals. The Company believes the well has low risk and is forecast to prove up to 30 million barrels of oil in place, which should expose the Company to a two-fold potential increase in net barrels of proved and probable reserves. The Company has a 100% interest in the well.
Paris Basin Shale Oil.The Company is pursuing the exploitation of unconventional resources in the Paris Basin, which is a transformational growth opportunity. Toreador's work in this area has shown that the Paris Basin has exceedingly similar characteristics to the Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin (North America). The Company has the right to develop 649,000 acres (with an additional 153,000 acres pending regulatory approval) in the heart of the Paris Basin where an estimated 65 billion barrels of oil are believed to remain in the source rock that is located between the long-producing conventional reservoirs of the Paris Basin.
The Company intends to use its proven U.S. experience with the Bakken Formation in Europe to exploit the vast resources that are demonstrated to be in the Paris Basin, using technologies commonplace in the U.S., but not yet employed in Europe. Pursuit of the Paris Basin Oil Shale will comprise four phases, with the scope of the latter three phases depending on previous results. The Company's current focus is on implementing Phase 1 through the end of 2010.