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Capitalization of Costs Incurred in Oil & Gas Activities
6 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2012
Capitalization of Costs Incurred in Oil & Gas Activities
4. Capitalization of Costs Incurred in Oil & Gas Activities

 

The Company accounts for the cost of exploratory wells and continues to capitalize exploratory well costs after the completion of drilling as long as sufficient progress is being made in assessing the oil sands reserves to justify its completion as a producing well.

 

For the period ended March 31, 2012, the Company’s management determined that sufficient progress has been made in assessing its oil sands reserves for continued capitalization of exploratory well costs. In relation to this sufficient progress assessment of its oil sands project the Company considered among other criteria; long lead times in getting regulatory approval for oil sands thermal recovery projects, road bans, winter access only properties and governmental and environmental regulations which can and often delay development of oil sands projects. Because of these and other factors, the Company’s oil sands project can take significantly longer to complete than regular conventional drilling programs for lighter oil. To date the Company’s geological, engineering and economic studies continue to lead them to believe that there is continuing progress toward bringing the project to commercial production. Therefore, the Company has continued to capitalize its costs associated with its oil sands project.

 

For the Company’s exploratory wells, drilling costs are capitalized on the balance sheet under “Oil and Gas Properties” line item, pending a determination of whether potentially economic oil sands reserves have been discovered by the drilling effort to justify completion of the find as a producing well. The Company periodically assesses the exploration and drilling capitalized costs for impairment and once a determination is made that a well is of no potential economic value, the costs related to that well are expensed as dry hole and reported in exploration expense.

 

The following table illustrates capitalized costs relating to oil and gas – producing activities for two periods ended March 31, 2012 and September 30, 2011:

 

    March 31, 2012     September 30, 2011  
             
Unproved Oil and Gas Properties   $ 13,223,349     $ 13,165,546  
Proved Oil and Gas Properties            
Accumulated Depreciation     (28,694 )     (24,595 )
                 
Net Capitalized Cost   $ 13,194,655     $ 13,140,951