Core Minerals Operating Co., Inc., of Evansville, Indiana, announced today the signing of an agreement to develop a portion of the Storms Pool Oil Field Unit in joint venture with Pioneer Oil Company of Lawrenceville, IL.

Discovered by the Sinclair Oil Company, the Storms Consolidated Field in the central Illinois Basin has produced approximately 24.5 million barrels of oil since the early 1940’s. Located three miles south of Carmi, Illinois, the Storms Pool Unit encompasses 2400 acres. The development of the project acreage will involve state of the art geological, production engineering, and horizontal directional drilling technology. Core Minerals will provide technical expertise to the joint venture and Pioneer Oil Company will provide the drilling and day to day field operations supervision. Potentially, the companies plan to drill up to 44 horizontal oil wells on the project acreage.

Michael McLear, Core Minerals’ Vice President of Exploration & Production explains that “Core brings an uncommon bundle of highly skilled personnel, technology, and capital to its long-term strategy to revive the Illinois Basin’s mature reservoirs.”

Core Minerals, in partnership with EnCap Investments of Houston, Texas, is the largest, privately owned independent oil producer operating from the Illinois Basin. In less than two years, Core Minerals has acquired eleven oil and gas production companies and properties and has invested over $50 million into the Illinois Basin.

Core’s corporate offices are located in Evansville, Indiana, with four field offices in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Pioneer Oil Company has been a contract driller and an oil and gas producer in the Illinois Basin for over 40 years. This is the second joint venture project between Core Minerals and Pioneer Oil Company.