Rango Energy Inc. announced that as of May 28, 2013, drilling has been initiated on its first well at the 11,000 acre Kettleman Middle Dome (KMD) project. The project is located within a producing oil field in the San Joaquin Basin, where companies such as Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and others are active. The project area is located within both Kings and Kern Counties, in South Central California, near the prolific Lost Hills oilfields.

The initial drill target for the first well, #17-18, will be the oil rich McAdams sandstone formation, a 900 to 1,000 foot thick Eocene age reservoir located at a depth of approximately 12,000 feet. The McAdams sandstone has been a prolific producer in the adjacent Kettleman North Dome field, producing over 400 million barrels of oil at an average of 2 million barrels per well. Other oil bearing formations that have been mapped directly at the KMD project are the Kreyenhagen Shale, the Vaqueros sandstone and the much-publicized, Monterey Shale.

As the operator, Hangtown will be responsible for drilling and producing the wells.