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Comment by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 17, 2014 at 1:59

Southwestern Energy plans to flare Walkerville well

Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 3:26 am  magnoliareporter.com

Southwestern Energy will flare natural gas from a well in Columbia County.

Southwestern Energy Production Company has received permission to flare gas at the workover of its McMahen well near Walkerville.

In a recent letter from Gary Looney, assistant director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission, to Cathy Rowan, Southwestern representative, Looney noted the request and granted it under certain conditions.

The flaring of natural gas will not exceed a 20-day period from the start of flaring. If hydrogen sulfide is detected, precautionary measures will be implements and the commission’s El Dorado office will be notified. Gas production from the well will be metered prior to flaring, and the appropriate royalty payments will be made to owners. The commission will also be notified when flaring ceases.

The request to burn off natural gas is the latest step in a process during which Southwestern Energy will reexamine its deep well into the Lower Smackover Brown Dense formation.

As was reported last week, a letter on file with the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission says that the company will place a workover rig at the McMahen No. 19-21 No. 1-7 site in a wildcat field west of Arkansas 19.

At the time the well was first drilled last October, there were hopes that it would find a large quantity of oil in the LSBD. The well was drilled to a depth of more than 11,000 feet. But perforations between 10,976 and 11,305 feet produced only four barrels of 40.1 gravity oil daily. The well was completed on December 17.

A letter from Rowan, a Southwestern Energy production analyst, said a workover rig will be used to perforate in the same zone but at a higher interval. There are no plans to fracture stimulate the well, but those plans may change. Rowan told the commission by letter that if Southwestern does go ahead with fracing of the well, the commission will be notified.

Southwestern Energy has let go thousands of acres leased for mineral purposes in the Columbia County area since its initial interest in the Lower Smackover. An exception has been the acreage that includes the square mile around the McMahen well site.

Comment by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 15, 2014 at 7:59

You're welcome, abraham.  I go to the SWN website at least once a month hoping to find updated information on their Brown Dense page, http://www.swn.com/operations/pages/browndense.aspx

The information there was posted  Feb. 28, 2014 and the leasehold total is from Dec. 31. 2013. 

Comment by abraham on September 15, 2014 at 7:44

Always appreciate your insights, Skip. The silence from the oil companies is deafening.

Comment by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 15, 2014 at 7:38

I don't have the slightest idea.  We haven't received much information from members living in the survey area.  The recent 4 L SMK unit applications likely indicate that SWN will have to drill in the near future to HBP the leases covered by those units, seismic survey or no seismic survey.  I suspect that the acreage under lease totals quoted in the arkansasbusiness.com article are no longer up to date.  At this point every week brings significant numbers of leases to their expiration dates.  The last quarter of the year will be very much a drill 'em or lose 'em time for SWN.

Comment by abraham on September 15, 2014 at 7:29

When do they expect to get the results from the 3-D seismic project?

Comment by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 15, 2014 at 2:48

SOUTH ARKANSAS FORMATION PROVES DISAPPOINTING SO FAR

by Michelle Corbet  on Monday, Sep. 15, 2014 12:00 am  arkansasbusiness.com

After the booming success of the Fayetteville Shale Play, it was easy to get excited about the prospect of exploiting another geological formation deep under Arkansas soil.

But the Lower Smackover Brown Dense formation has, so far, been a disappointment for exploration companies, mineral rights owners and state regulators hoping for a 21st century oil boom in south Arkansas and north Louisiana.

While investors haven’t given up, the excitement has definitely waned. In Southwestern Energy Co.’s first-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Steve Mueller compared the Brown Dense to a playground bully.

“Sometimes they tell you that when the bully comes up, the thing to do is go fight him,” he said. “But you don’t want to do that too many times. You get beat up too many times if he keeps beating you up. And right now Brown Dense is beating us up.”

The Lower Smackover Brown Dense formation is an unconventional oil reservoir that straddles the Arkansas-Louisiana line. Oil and gas extraction companies have been investing in untapped land for a number of years in hopes that modern drilling techniques could make the oil beneath the thick limestone economically viable.

Southwestern Energy, which moved its headquarters from Fayetteville to Houston in 2001, is the primary exploration and production company in the Brown Dense, just as it was on the cutting edge of Fayetteville Shale development. Evidence of slipping enthusiasm was included in Southwestern’s second-quarter earnings report released at the end of July: Planned investment in the Brown Dense for 2014 had dropped by almost 40 percent, from $178 million to $110 million, of which $69 million was invested in the first six months of the year.

As of September, Southwestern was holding the rights to 396,000 net acres in the Brown Dense, down from almost 460,000 at the end of 2013.

Larry Bengal, director of the Arkansas Oil & Gas Commission, said although several wells have been drilled, none has been successful to date on the Arkansas side of the formation. Several wells are in production on the Louisiana side of the formation, he said.

In its September investor presentation, Southwestern Energy shows a map of 14 wells; 12 of them were testing or producing, one was waiting on completion and one had been “shut in,” or closed off.

Bill Way, Southwestern’s executive vice president and COO, told investors in July that Brown Dense efforts were being redirected from drilling to a 3-D seismic project that will enable engineers to “get a better picture” of the company’s wells, both successful and unsuccessful.

The 3-D seismic project will cover a 75-square-mile area in Union Parrish, Louisiana.

The Upper Smackover fields have produced oil and gas through conventional wells since the 1920s. Extraction companies had hoped that the Lower Smackover, a dense, limestone formation with vertical depths ranging from 8,000 to 11,000 feet, can be reached with horizontal drilling.

And, in a departure from their typically secretive culture, the producers have been sharing well data to see if anyone can “make a go of it,” Kelly Robbins, executive vice president of Arkansas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners, said.

“At this point it is very much in the exploratory stage,” he said.

It’s not just the oil and gas companies that want to see this succeed, Robbins said, but also people who own mineral rights and those who own surrounding businesses.

Comment by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 29, 2014 at 5:16

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 29, 2014-- Whiting Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: WLL) today announced that it will present at the Barclays CEO Energy/Power Conference at the Sheraton New York Times Square in New York City on Tuesday, September 2, 2014 at 11:45 a.m. (EDT). President and CEO James J. Volker will discuss the Company’s strategy, development plans and outlook.

The presentation slides will be available at http://www.whiting.com by clicking on the button labeled “Kodiak Acquisition” on the home page.

Comment by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on August 5, 2014 at 2:23

Red's December 28, 2013 was the last comment posted prior to yours.  Most replies are posted to individual discussion threads instead of to the group's comment wall.

Comment by charlotte beaird on August 4, 2014 at 19:57

How can I update this? This is last year's comments.

Comment by Red on December 28, 2013 at 4:29

Watch out for Jeff "Doc" Sersland. He is selling deep rights fraudently in the LSBD. Beware, he is a scam artist. His name is Jeff Sersland and he is from North Dakota. He may go by Useldinger for a last name too. That is his grandmother's last name. Call the authorities if he contacts you. He is wanted by authorities in Texas.

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