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Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 24, 2026 at 13:03

Something about 22-16N-13W rings a bell with me.  I took a look at the SONRIS well file.  The original unit well was drilled by J-W Operating.  J-W was a major operator in the Elm Grove Field prior to the Haynesville Shale.  The company had never drilled a horizontal well or done a modern hydraulic fracture stimulation of a horizontal well.  After watching dozens of companies drill HA wells, J-W decided to drill one themselves.  The well was a total disaster and J-W became the laughing stock of the play.  Back then the average well cost about $10M.  J-W spent $25M and still didn't get a good well.  If I am right, I can' say why no other company has drilled a HA well in the section.  J-W sold their deep rights to Aethon and basically went out of business as far as I know. Adamas acquired Aethon's land position so Section 22 may get another bite at the apple.  Good luck to Adamas and the mineral owners in the section.

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landownerPermalink Reply by Dale Walton on August 24, 2026 at 15:09

That vertical well has some perfs in the Haynesville.  J-W along with Camterra used this type of operation to hold deep rights in Elm Grove by calling the completion Lower Cotton Valley.  A lot of minerals owners got screwed and a lot of the small Shreveport operators were complicit in it.  

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Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 24, 2026 at 15:17

Camterra and J-W Operating formed some CV and LCV units with depth definitions that included the Haynesville Shale in 2008.  The Commissioner stopped that practice and prohibited drilling units that combined sandstone formations with the shale thereafter.  Those that were already approved were allowed to remain in force.  I posted a Blog on it back in the day.

https://gohaynesvilleshale.com/profiles/blogs/cotton-valley-and-low...

Oil & Gas ProPermalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 25, 2026 at 2:03

You're right, Dale.  As conventional production by small local independents was on the decline, the Haynesville Shale created an opportunity to hold deep rights and to monetize old leases still in force.  Those efforts made many of the independents rich but created a lot of litigation with mineral rights owners.  Some of which is ongoing today eighteen years later.

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