Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Josh on June 5, 2012 at 2:03

They are horizontal CV wells. These wells are still gas wells and will be classified as such with the RRC because the GOR falls on the gas heavy side. Devon's thinking, well Devon's thinking when oil was $105/bbl, is that if these wells make 70 bbls/day then they will payout and be profitable. Now that oil is down to $84/bbl the econimics aren't as attractive, but they have committed to drill & complete quite a few of these wells already so will be proceeding for now. If gas prices don't come up (not likely) and oil prices keep falling (better than 50/50 that they will) then I don't look for Devon to keep it up for than a year unless they bought a PUT for their oil. Quit looking for "Big" deep oil. It's a unicorn.

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 5, 2012 at 3:19

Kathy, the "big, deep oil" rumor in LA concerned DeSoto and Sabine parishes although western Harrison County in Texas also had some, just to mention a few.  The Lower Smackover wells being drilled by Southwestern along the Arkansas border are nowhere near those two parishes or western Harrison.  As I have attempted to point out multiple times, depth is a critical factor.  Laymen latch onto a formation name and ascribe all they hear to that formation wherever it may exist.  Using the Lower Smackover (Brown Dense) as an example, it is 10,000' to 11,000+' where SWN is currently drilling.  And that's the approximate intersection of the oil window and the wet gas window.  The oil window gets shallower moving north.  In southern DeSoto and Sabine parishes the Lower Smackover would likely be somewhere around15,000+'.  That's a very significant difference in the thermal maturity of the formation. At that depth the hydrocarbons are very probably "cooked off".  The formation temperatures at those depths would be well over 400 degree F.

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 5, 2012 at 4:19

There are salt deposits in the area of the most southern Haynesville wells in Sabine and Natchitoches parishes.  The extreme bottom hole temps at those deep depths were not mitigated by the salt. The naysayers are still around regrading the Brown Dense.  It has not proven to be commercial so far but SWN continues to drill and we should know the answer by the end of the year.  Please don't take differing opinions personally. Mine are not meant to be derogatory.  And the discussion of deep oil brings up good points which help laymen learn and put discussion comments in perspective.  Best wishes, Skip

Permalink Reply by PJ on June 5, 2012 at 15:36

all the discussions help me a lowly laymen with O&G. thanks for the open sharing.

 

Permalink Reply by Josh on June 7, 2012 at 4:50

Kathy, I didn't take your comments to be disrespectful nor did I  intend mine to be. As an "O&G professional" everyday I see countless laymen get caught up in the hype generated by publicly traded companies looking to boost their stock price who release little snippets of information, just to be let down when reality smacks them in the face. I hate to see people disappointed in this way. 

I would love to be wrong about this, but physics and chemistry don't lie. I've posted this diagram on GHS before, I believe it was when the Haynesville was new and there were a lot of excited people jumping up and down about how the Haynesville Shale was going single-handedly to cure the energy crisis because someone down at the local barber shop told them it was the greatest oil discovery since Spindletop. It's a very simple representation of the "oil/gas window." It doesn't take into account pressures or formation age or depositional environment or any of the other myriad of things that affect the reaction that breaks the oil down into gas, but it's a good approximation for people who aren't reservoir engineers or geochemists. For reference, the (static) bottom hole temperature in the Cotton Valley in Harrison County is approximately 260 F (125 C).

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Permalink Reply by Josh on June 7, 2012 at 5:17

Here it is at least once:

http://www.gohaynesvilleshale.com/forum/topics/gmxr-confirms-lots-o...

Same county and same oily hopes, just a different formation this time.

Permalink Reply by dbob on June 5, 2012 at 15:23

Not to add fuel to the fire, but I will put some facts out there that could be related to the rumors:  Devon has recently completed construction of a roughly 6 acre pad for the Haggard Gas Unit #1H, a Cotton Valley Horizontal with TVD planned at 10,000' and a lateral length of about 5500'.  One looking at the drilling permit, which lists the total length as the depth (15,500').  someone reading that might not be familiar with the system and think it was a well to 15,500' TVD.

It isn't, as Josh indicates, an "oil" well strictly speaking, but would be a nice shot in the arm if productive.  

Permalink Reply by dbob on June 5, 2012 at 15:47

Oh, and a recent check of their production in Harrison County for those leases that reported in the first few months of 2012 don't show anything particularly special with regarding to oil/condensate.  

Permalink Reply by Caddo Rat on June 6, 2012 at 4:54

Why would Valence, drilling in BP farmouts drill so many vertical wells 2000 feet below the Haynesville Shale if they weren't looking for something? If there was nothing there why did they continue to drill that deep after they drilled the first couple of deep verticals. These were all in areas that had #3D seismic previously.

 

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 6, 2012 at 5:10

Valence Operating drilled 4 vertical Haynesville and Haynesville/Cotton Valley wells in Harrison County in 2011 none of which produced any liquids much less oil.  All four are completed as producing gas wells.  None of the wells I have seen listed were deeper than 12,228' True Vertical Depth.

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on June 6, 2012 at 8:51

It doesn't have to be "big" or "deep" as long as it is productive and "yours".  Good Luck, Kathy.

Permalink Reply by Caddo Rat on June 6, 2012 at 8:52

The Haynesville is at 10200. Just because they aren't producing it doesn't mean there is nothing down at the bottom of the hole. There could be a lot of reasons for holding off production of liquid.

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