Questerre Energy Corp. confirmed that good core was recovered throughout the Second White Specks shale upon completion of the first phase of a core hole program to assess its oil shale licenses in Saskatchewan. Approximately 30 m (98 ft) of the target oil shale formation was encountered in the wells drilled.

The winter program was designed to evaluate the western block, known as the Arborfield block, covering 58,112 net acres. During the first quarter of 2012, over 700 m (2,296 ft) of continuous core was obtained from 10 new wells. The wells were drilled to an average depth of 100 m (328 ft) with wireline logs acquired from surface to depth.

Approximately 400 core samples from these wells are currently being analyzed for geochemical properties. Testing will also include modified Fisher assay analysis to evaluate the potential oil yield and an assessment of the prospective oil shale resource.

Questerre is currently permitting a summer program of up to 10 additional wells. These wells will gather core data to evaluate the eastern block, known as the Wildcat Hills block, covering an additional 42,572 net acres.