Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on January 26, 2014 at 6:53

Use this link to view the well file.  Operator is Exchange Exploration.  You can click on text in blue to link to more information such as Org ID for the company's contact information.  Of interest is several long gaps in historic production.  There is no way to know for sure without some research but unless there were shut in payments made or some kind of "continuing operations" covered by lease language, the lease rights for this well probably expired through the periods of no production.  A good reminder that mineral owners should demand an operator release them from the lease and file a release of lease in the public record.  Exchange is the seventh operator of record for this well.

http://sonlite.dnr.state.la.us/sundown/cart_prod/cart_con_wellinfo2...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by gerald burns on January 26, 2014 at 7:17

Mr. Peel, thank you very much for your research on this old well. It looks like the TMS is still producing from that location at about 12000' depth.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on January 26, 2014 at 7:32

Might be.  There is no Well Scout section in this Well File and very little in the document portion of the database.  If the area where the well is located were to prove prospective for the TMS in the future the mineral lessor would not receive the full benefit of any exploration and production.  Exchange Exploration would receive any bonus and royalty in excess of the royalty specified in the original lease.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by gerald burns on January 26, 2014 at 14:10

Do you know how much the well is producing now on a daily basis? This is the most southern TMS well producing in Tangipahoa parish that I can find. In your opinion, will this producing well encourage other oil exploration companies to look a little further south in the TMS in Tangipahoa parish?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dion Warr, CPL on January 27, 2014 at 11:36

Gerald:

Wilmer Field is kind of an "oddball".  From what I recall anecdotally about this well, it was drilled in the 60s, and natural fracturing along with some advantageous geology immediately around this well allowed it to produce far longer than any well anywhere near it (somewhat akin to the Blades well in Little Silver Creek Field).   There are a few holes poked around it, drilled primarily in the 70s and 80s; some were complete dusters; others produced for short and/or intermittent periods before drying up.  Considering the dates (although I have not done any courthouse research on the subject), it would appear that Exchange has a leasehold which may currently have been maintained by the nearby LSP well in Section 4 (SN 98364; this is the L TUSC SUE unit well - the well that Skip references is the L TUSC SUD well - SN 78493).

The D unit well appears to have gone kaput again this past March, except for a 4 bbl output in August; however, the last reporting on SONRIS is Nov. 2013.  The E well, however, has been producing since August 2012 at a rate between 10 and 30 bbl/d.  I am not sure whether there is a line leading from one pad to another that would suggest a common tank battery; however, being that both of these wells are located on adjacent (contiguous?) property by a common operator and that the change of operator happened somewhat close in time would suggest that production from one or the other, or both, would serve to hold a lease confined to acreage within these units.

Skip is correct in stating that any TMS horizontal unit that would embrace this vertical unit within the productive interval (insofar that current productive zones corresponds with the field definition for the TMS that may be held by the lease) would be paid to Exchange (or lease owner), with royalties due within the L TUSC to be paid to LSP, et al by the WI owner.

With respect to "southernmost production" in the parish - The Soterra 6H well (SN 243765; formerly operated by Devon, now Goodrich) is located on approximately the same E-W line one township to the west (Sec. 6, T3S-R7E) and laterals / bottoms in Section 7 to the south.

• ▶ Reply