2007-07-23 15:05 ET - News Release

Mr. Bill Cawker reports

MONTELLO HIRES SENIOR WELL SITE GEOLOGIST CONTINUING ITS RAMP UP FOR PENDING HIGH IMPACT DRILLING AT HIGHPOINT IN NORTH-EASTERN TENNESSEE

Max Sloan, a respected well-site geologist in the Alberta oil patch, has agreed to join Montello Resources Ltd. for the Morgan Highpoint project. He is the latest member of the team, and will be joining drilling manager, Phil Emrich, field operations manager, Dave Schofield, and president, Dwayne Tyrkalo, imminently on location at the John Bowen No. 2 well site (Morgan Highpoint No. 1) located in Morgan county, Tennessee.

In the last 20 years, Mr. Sloan has mostly focused on complex overthrust and faulted projects in the foothills and mountains of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and British Columbia. His most recent work activity with Conoco (which was Burlington and previously was Poco) was in the foothills of Alberta and British Columbia in the OJ, Solomon and Palliser areas, and also overthrust mountain wells in West Bullmoose, Grizzley, Sukunka and Bolder.

Between Poco-Burlington, Mr. Sloan was busy with Pan Canadian-Encana in the Ferrier area. Also, Mr. Sloan was involved in a deep hole in Twin Butte/Pincher Creek, as well as in Newfoundland to do a project on the Portaport peninsula. In this time period, he also was the well-site geologist on a deep test at Brag Creek for EOG. Of note prior to his work at Poco, he spent 10 years with Talisman also in the aforementioned mountain area which also includes Wolverine, Speaker, Brazion, Burnt River, Murray River and Falls. Talisman bought out BP Canada, where Mr. Sloan spent a long period of time just like his tenure with Skelly Oil (which became Getty Oil). Skelly also worked in the same Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and Alberta. Notable projects include Commotion, East Pine, Robb, Cadomin and Onion (Crowsnest Pass). Mr. Sloan also looked after wells for Coseka and Oakwood Petroleum in the Coleman/Blairmore area of the southern Rockies off the Crowsnest Highway as well as a deep test for Hershy on the backside of Turtle Mountain. Mr. Sloan was on retainer with Ocelot industries for several years where he sat the discovery hole at Poco, south of Edson, and helped define that pool and others where he was also responsible for some of the drilling operations. During this time Mr. Sloan employed three geologists under his company, M.D. Sloan Consultants Ltd.

Prior to the Skelly/Getty commitment, Mr. Sloan spent a few years with Pacific Petroleum (which was later bought out by Petro-Canada). A few of the higher-profile wells were Brule Lake, near the Jasper Park border, Lodgepole, and also Long-View in the southern Rocky Mountain foothills.

Mr. Sloan had an extensive contract with Jefferson Lake (CanOxy) during the 1960s and 1970s in the Alberta foothills looking for sour gas in the Okotoks/High River/Crossfield areas. Jefferson Lake duties also included looking after drilling activities, such as cementing, drill stem testing and day-to-day operations. Mr. Sloan's expertise covered Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with many other companies including Hudson Bay Oil & Gas, Canadian Homestead, Canadian Superior, Canadian Reserve, Oakwood Petroleum, Murphy Oil, Sun Oil and Apache. Prior to establishing his consulting company in 1967, he worked with California Standard (Chevron), Canadian Pacific Oil & Gas (Pan-Canadian/Encana), Pan American Petroleum (Amoco) and Helton Engineering. It was not uncommon to look after more than one well at a time, often for different oil companies.

A personal highlight for Mr. Sloan was doing a few geology stints on the discovery hole at Pan Am A-1 Pointed Mountain, which Mr. Sloan says was one of the biggest wells in the 1960s, as well as Steamboat Mountain in the early 1970s, near the B.C.-Yukon border, while with Canadian Superior. Mr. Sloan thought he was done for good until Mr. Emrich told him about the opportunity in Morgan county, Tennessee. Mr. Sloan is totally enthused about putting his 40 years of expertise into the hunt for big oil and/or gas at Highpoint in the central-southern Appalachians. "It is just too exciting a project for me to pass up, given success to date in the northern Appalachians by one of my former employers whom I have great respect for," said Mr. Sloan.

Montello welcomes Mr. Sloan as an integral member of the Highpoint project team.