In the coming months, Brian McDonnell is planning to drill an oil well in the heart of the Nevada desert that he thinks could be company-making for his business, PLUS Markets listed US Oil and Gas plc (PLUS: USOP). For three years McDonnell, his management team and a small army of scientists have been scrutinising a 21 sq km licence area in the searing heat of Hot Creek Valley – a drive of around 200 miles north-east of San Francisco, close to the California-Nevada border. After securing the licence by acquiring the assets of Major Oil International LLC in 2009 they have since carried out a series of advanced surveys and are now closing in on a drilling campaign.

McDonnell’s greatest inspiration for pursuing the project is the fact that Hot Creek Valley sits just 20 miles from the prolific Railroad Valley and lies in the oil rich region of central Nevada and western Utah known as the Sevier Thrust. The land also shares the same geological features as the 1bn barrel Covenant oil field in western Utah. US Oil is not alone as a London listed oil group targeting onshore US, with others including Nighthawk Energy Plc (LON:HAWK) , Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) , Aminex (LON:AEX) , Empyrean Energy (LON:EME) , San Leon Energy (LON:SLE) and Nostra Terra Oil Gas Co Plc (LON:NTOG) . Ahead of plans to begin drilling in first quarter of 2011, Brian McDonnell spoke to Stockopedia about the detailed analysis that has been carried out in Hot Creek Valley and his longer term expectations for the project.

Brian, US Oil and Gas came to PLUS in January this year. What have you been working on since then?

The first thing is that we have achieved everything that we set out to achieve. The share price is up by well over 80% and it’s holding very solid and the response to the company and the programme has been extraordinary. Two weeks ago we reported to…

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

Unlock with Email
Unlock with Google

Already have an account?
Login here