Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by L Davis on February 12, 2011 at 3:47

Joe

Anderson has been in the leasing rumors for at least a year.  Some of the lease buyers tell who they are buying for and some do not. 

I would like to comment on my own qestion about other oil companies having an interest in the new Anderson well application.  At the very end of the interested parties are several oil companies.

Stephens Production Company was buying leases in western Union County last spring in an area N of Hwy 82, west of the El Dorado Airport and west to the Columbia County line.

 

Atlanta Exploration recently had an ad in the El Dorado paper looking for mineral owners in sections 10 & 11, T19S, R15W in Union County.

 

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 10, 2011 at 9:00

LOL! Guys Brammer doesn't decide where to drill wells.  They drill where their customers tell them to, in this case Anderson.  In fact multiple non-commercial wells lend credence to the notion that this is not a resource play.  As to permeability and porosity, hopefully this location is better.  Send a memo if you like, personally I hope Anderson and others keep moving around until they find where the Brown Dense is productive.  Then they can drill step outs to determine the extent of the prospect.  I would suggest that the prospect could become a play if a fraction of the acreage leased turns out to be productive. That's usually the way it turns out.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on February 10, 2011 at 11:30

Requesting a hold on the log is not that uncommon. You can do the sam e in LA, but you can hold it confidential for up to a year.

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 10, 2011 at 11:35

I'd hold it too if executives from a competitor were showing up at my unit application hearings.

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Permalink Reply by Herman (Chuck) Plonnigs, III on February 10, 2011 at 11:35

OK ladies and gentlemen,

 

I really enjoy nothing more than to publically display my ignorance…so here goes.

 

After the well bore has been perfed…what is considered a successful frac? How far from the well bore (in feet or yards…I don’t speak meters) does a frac need to travel into the formation to be considered successful? Can this be measured?

 

If the lower Smackover is being successfully fraced, should we consider the Brown Dense to be dry?

 

If unsuccessfully fraced then we haven’t achieved the technology required to produce this formation.

 

Is this, very simplicity, an appropriate observation?

 

Please forgive mis-spelling.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 11, 2011 at 3:23

Chuck, as to your first question - I don't think anyone knows yet.  The frac propagation of Haynesville Shale wells is monitored from down hole geophones in surrounding wells.  2) I think the interest in the Brown Dense is that it would be "wet". 3) I do not think that the "technology" is the reason behind the first two wells being non-economic.  I think it is location.  And that we will see more wells across a wider area looking for locales are economic owing to improved reservoir conditions.  I think of these wells as similar to horizontal L. Cotton Valley wells as opposed to Hayensville Shale horizontal wells.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on February 11, 2011 at 4:01

Chuck,

 

The total content of hydrocarbons can easily be measure by taking core samples. The question not only can it be fraced, but more importantly can it be frac economically. A fifty bbl/day well would be considered pretty good in other situations. The problem here is that in order to get the 50 bbl/d production, Brammer/Anderson had to spend a ton of money.  H2S only increases the problems.

 

Skip is holding on to the hope that better locations will be more productive. Personally, in my opinion, and from what I have heard from those who have actually drilled through the Brown Dense, is that the rock itself will present chalanges that will make any well extremly challanging and expensive. It remains to be seen if a well can be drilled that will actually be profitable.

 

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Permalink Reply by Herman (Chuck) Plonnigs, III on February 11, 2011 at 4:50

Dear Mr. Skip and Dear Mr. Barron,

 

I sincerely appreciate your knowledgeable and educated responses to my question/observations.

 

This again points out a primary difference to the HS and the lower Smackover, the lack of contiguity if the Smackover increases all drilling to the point of wildcatting.

 

My observation would be…the fact a successful Brown Dense was produced in South Arkansas would no necessarily translate to an increased value in mineral upfront value for those in Union Parish.

 

I had another observation to make but have proceeded to forget. Again the age factor at play!!

 

Thanks,

Chuck

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Joe Deerhunter on February 11, 2011 at 6:02

Hi folks,

Everyone is probably ahead of me on understanding this formation, but let me see if this sheds any light:

First, I think that at least a good part of my interests are in the Dorcheat-Macedonia field, or thereabouts.  I found a 1946 article describing what they knew at that point (OK, slightly out of date, I know -- but really neat to learn some of the history of the area that I'd ignorerd as a kid).  But aside from the general shape of the D-M field and the ridge dividing it into two pools, the main point I got was that there are "lenses" of oil-bearing sand, in greatly varying sizes,  at random points all over the map.  

So, is this what makes the wildcatting necessary in this district?  Or is the current state of knowledge much clearer on where these reservoirs are?

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on February 11, 2011 at 6:11

Joe,  I suggest that you get Aubrey Sanders involved in answering these questions.  He is our go to geologist for this area.  In general much of our debate concerns the nature of the BD portion of the Smackover formation.  Is it a conventional or unconventional reservoir?  How "tight" is it (permeability)?  And does it contain commercial deposits of hydrocarbons (porosity)?  If there are sufficient hydrocarbons, will horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracture stimulation be the key to producing them?

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Permalink Reply by Paul M. Hess on February 11, 2011 at 11:01

Joe-

 

Wildcats are typically wells drilled outside a defined area of production such as a currently producing field. An operator decides to drill one because either he, or a geologist approaching the operator, believes the wildcat location they picked will lead to a new field, or if within a field, a new reservoir. The brown dense Smackover test in Dorcheat-Macedonia was a new reservoir wildcat! I suspect many brown dense wildcats are being planned as it has a large areal extent being thicker towards the deeper basin and thinner towards the periphery. As Skip says, it is a matter of finding the sweet spots where the hydrocarbons are retained within a decent level of porosity for storage that can be had by adequate fracturing. This may be difficult as the brown dense is just that. Dense. In south Arkansas, the formation appears to be primarily a well cemented argillaceous (shaley) lime/dolomite which in some areas may have some thin low porosity stringers. From what I have heard, hydrocarbons may be observed throughout most of the section. So it is possible to find them, produceing at a commercial rate for an adequate time frame is the trick to pull! Finding that "spot" is what the wildcatting is about.

 

As to the '46 article you read, I suspect the sands mentioned were Cotton Valley and shallower formations. If you don't mind, please post the link or a .pdf file as I would enjoy reading it myself.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Deerhunter on February 11, 2011 at 13:07

Paul, it actually came up first when I did a Google search for "Dorcheat-Macedonia."   It's a chapter from the AOGC, apparently shortly after WWII.  Here's the brief description & link:

[PDF]

Dorcheat-Macedonia - Chapter 27, Dorcheat-Macedonia Oil Field

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Realizing that Dorcheat and Macedonia were parts of the same oil field, a petition was .... in the Dorcheat-Macedonia field is speculative not only ...
www.aogc.state.ar.us/recovery/FINALS/Chap27.pdf - Similar

One interesting sidelight about it, to me, was the description of all the waste oil and spilled brine from surface storage back during the first oil boom.  As a kid, I thought the really barren places around Magnolia and Claiborne Parish were due to over-farming or something.  Thank God the industry has changed from those techniques.

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