• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A state board approved permits Thursday allowing a new company to drill two oil and gas wells in a part of western South Dakota that's far from existing wells.
• The Board of Minerals and Environment voted unanimously to let Quartz Operations LLC drill the wells roughly 9,700 feet deep about two miles west of Wasta and just south of Interstate 90. South Dakota's main oilfield is in Harding County in the northwest corner of the state.
• State Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials said Quartz has provided no information to indicate why it thinks oil might be found in the area. The department also said Quartz Operations, formed in November, has not previously drilled in South Dakota.
• Quartz company leader Natali M. Ormiston, of Deadwood, did not testify at Thursday's hearing, but said after the meeting she's been in the oil business for a long time.
• State Geologist Derric Iles said he doubts Quartz Operations will find oil, but the drilling is unlikely to cause any harm.
• "Based on what I know, the probability of success is fairly low," Iles told the board.
• Iles said the Quartz Operation wells would drill into the Precambrian formation, a variety of rocks ranging from 1 billion to 3 billion years old. He said he is not aware of oil- or gas-producing wells drilled into the formation in South Dakota or the surrounding states.
• Iles is in charge of a South Dakota effort to encourage more drilling in the state, but he said most companies are reluctant to drill outside of North Dakota's booming oilfields. However, the Quartz wells will provide information about geological forma

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