Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by William C. Morrison on December 25, 2011 at 2:23

I would dare to offer my opinions.  The wells down here are riskier.  And cost a lot more to drill especially when the laterals run up to 7,000 feet.   Not a lot is known about how to handle the Austin Chalk, it seems the wells produce a lot for a short period of time and start to give problems not experienced before.  Problems like the Chalk collapses thus blocking off the well production source.   Some think long laterals are not the answer but rather short laterals, who knows?  Our place has been leased before, like four or five times before.  That kind of tells us that there are minerals but accessing them must be terrible difficult (make that expensive).  It is always a crap shoot. 

 

I can remember when the lease was for $25 an acre, then $75 an acre and now it is $175 an acre - all for a duration of three years.  So you might say we have collected four or five times already.  What is odd to me is that it is all Austin Chalk in Pointe Coupee and all Tuscaloosa Marine Shale across the river in West Feleciana.  That seems odd to me.  But I guess there has to be some change with distance, it just seems the distance is not very much, like less than a mile in some cases.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Permalink Reply by Craig Wascom on December 25, 2011 at 8:54

Chip

I do not understand that either. Could it be company preference? Those on the west side of the river prefer AC and east prefer TMS. Surely these formations or on both sides. Then I am not a geologist and dont really have a clue.

Permalink Reply by William C. Morrison on December 25, 2011 at 9:37

No, the TMS is below the Austin Chalk.  The TMS is sort of like a cap on top of the Tuscaloosa Trend which is sand/sandstone and the like.  So they are two different strats and geologies.  Our place is actually leased for both Austin Chalk and Tuscaloosa Trend at the same time.  The Trend has a higher royality at 25% while the Chalk is 20%.  I am guessing the Chalk is about 14,000 to 15,000 feet deep while the Trend sort of starts at 18,000 feet and goes down maybe to around 20,000 feet.  The Trend has several layers or as they refer to it "resevoirs," those occur at different depths with in the Trend.   So there is resevoir A and resevoir B in the Trend.

We are sort of sandwiched between the Moore Sams field the East - Southeast, Morganza Field that is to the West - due West to Southwest and the Judge Digby which is well to the South South east of us.  These fields are generally along the Edwards Shelf, Edwards Shelf Down Dip, etc.  In front of us is the Mississippi and at that point flows almost due East, so it is like a North South boundary for us from the West Feleciana.  I am thinking as one heads North into West Feleciana that the Austin Chalk must get consdieraly thinner, ergo one goes for the better known shale - TMS.  Shale is where the fracking will begin.  The Austin Chalk is naturally fractured and needs no fracking.  And while the Chalk is soft compared to the shale it is still pretty dam hard.  But I guess long laterals are subject to collapse.

From Harry Potter - "And now we wait."

Permalink Reply by Two Dogs, Pirate on December 25, 2011 at 7:52

You can't bank on a 1000 BOPD on every well. Some may  only  come in at 250 or less BOPD. The wells fall off real fast also. Many of the units will be nearly 3 times the sise of a HA unit and you want be able to drill 8 wells like you can on a HA. The risk of loosing money on an AC well is much higher than a HA.