MarlboroDog: I am not an oil and gas engineer but I do know that when you are drilling deep wells for example like the 3 wells that Canadian Superior Energy and British Gas just completed drilling offshore Trinidad that when the wells are 16,000 or 17,000 feet deep that these were high pressure wells over 4,000 psi each. At these depths you can get high temperature and high pressure wells. This is what you have to contend with at great depth. It presents problems which are not insurmountable just costly. For example two of Canadian Superiors wells ended up costing double the projected costs due to the problems encountered for example: stuck pipe casings, lost bottom hole assembly, broken drill bits, abandoned bottom hole section requiring sidetrack drilling.

Refer to the following press release by PDP on April 17, 2009 which states the following: “The La Pinta 1 exploration well, which is currently being drilled on Petrolifera’s 100 percent owned Sierra Nevada License in Colombia, was at a depth of approximately 10,600 feet as of April 16th 2009. It is now anticipated the well will be drilled to a final total depth of approximately 11,000 feet. Petrolifera continues to be encouraged by results encountered during the drilling ot the La Pinta 1 well, based on hydrocarbon mud log shows and the interpretation of intermediate logging runs. The drilling of the well is significantly behind the originally anticipated schedule, due to problems which were encountered, firstly while attempting to run the 9 5/8th inch intermediate casing in the upper section of the wellbore and subsequently, challenges arising from instability in the lower section of the well. The former problem in the upper part of the well was resolved and the instability in the lower section of the wellbore now appears to be under control. Due to the downhole instabilities, it has been decided to attempt to complete the well at a depth of 11,000 feet instead of the originally planned depth of 13,000 feet. An application in this regard has been submitted to ANH, the Colombian Government Agency that regulates such activity and a decision is anticipated shortly. Petrolifera's management believes that all of the geological objectives of the well and contractual obligations of the license will be met with the well terminating at a depth of 11,000 feet. Further evaluation is anticipated to occur by testing, after the well is logged and the bottom portion of the wellbore is cased."

So from this quotation we can see that this is a very deep well 11,000 feet deep. The Columbian Agency ANH, agreed subsequently with PDP that the well's total depth should be limited to 11,000 feet. At Petrolifera's General Meeting on May 6th Dick Gusella stated that PDP had budgeted $8 million to drill the La Pinta 1 well and at that time they had already spent over $12 million drilling it but that from what the hydrocarbon and mud logs indicated that it was worth spending this money as they were very optimistic on the outcome of testing of this well. If you go back to the original press release of January 26, 2009, PDP stated that they were not just going to test the formation at the bottom of the well but:

"The primary objective of the La Pinta-1 well is to reevaluate the originally tested intervals of the nearby Guamito-1 well and to evaluate additional zones not tested in the original wellbore."

So I think that due to the high cost so far in drilling La Pinta 1 ($12million dollars two months ago so far) that Petrolifera is hell bent on sticking to the original plan and testing all of the uphole formations and zones that they can in order to justify the final cost of this well. Remember, Petrolifera is trying to use this well to identify a large oil field with oil that can be produced from various uphole zones. This is PDP President Gary Wine's MO......just like he did in Argentina he wants to find several productive zones closer to the surface so that future wells are cheaper and easier to drill if possible. Why drill future wells at 11,000 feet and encounter expensive problems with each future well if you can drill shallower, cheaper wells that are just as productive or more productive at say 1,000 to 2,000 feet. La Pinta-1 when the tests are complete will reveal a great deal of information to Petrolifera on how to proceed in the future in terms of whether this area has development potential. In terms of is high pressure good or bad, it can be good as the oil will naturally flow out of the well on its own at a very high rate and artificial lift will not be needed. However, I am sure that there are a lot of other associated problems as mentioned above.

Best Wishes; Scott