Euro plays : Canadian companies find success in England and France

A growing list of Canadian companies are searching for oil and gas onshore in England and France. Cirque Energy Corp., Vermilion Resources Ltd., Morrison Middlefield Resources Ltd., and Bow Valley Energy Ltd., are among the companies that are taking advantage of the underexplored basins, little competition, availability of land, and (in the case of the United Kingdom) a superior fiscal regime. Cirque Energy Corp. entered the U.K. in 1995 and currently has a 220,000 acre land position in the East Midlands basin, 250 km north of London. The main producing reservoirs are Permo-Carboniferous in age. The geology is similar to that in the North Sea. In November 1998, Cirque plans to build a 2,500 metre, six inch pipeline to transport up to 1,500 gross bbls of oil per day. Vermilion Resources Ltd. acquired oil and gas assets in the Paris and Aquitaine basin. The company has executed a $10.1 million workover and recompletion program on 42 wells which has increased production to more than 6,000 BOE per day from the previous 4,000 BOE per day. 3 figs