Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on July 10, 2010 at 22:32

Les, do you have any idea of the range of how many feet of vertical displacement there is across one of these faults?

Are there any "mechanical" reasons not to drill through the faults? i.e. ground movement will damage the well bore, rock not suitable for drilling, potential for leaks, could crack the earth's crust, dropping everything south of the fault into the Gulf of Mexico, etc.

This would sound like a good place to define a unit boundary on something other than a section boundary.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Stepman on July 11, 2010 at 3:23

Those are good points to bring up. I have wondered the same thing. Does anyone know how many total faults are in this area?

Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 11, 2010 at 4:14

Mac, there are not mechanical reasons but geologic reasons not to drill thru faults. Throws vary significantly by faults but it would only take a small displacement (50 ft?) to affect the well design.

Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on July 11, 2010 at 13:30

Thanks, Les. I presume you mean you wouldn't be in the right depth to get good gas production.

Do they ever steer a lateral bore up and down to follow depth variations in the gas bearing rock across a section, either across a fault, or even in a "normal" section?

Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 11, 2010 at 14:41

Mac, you definitely can steer the lateral up or down to follow the "layer". A fault would cause a problem if the the throw was greater than the thickness of the layer.

Permalink Reply by Jim Cobb on July 11, 2010 at 15:19

Hey Guys
For what its worth, the Cottingham Well Site drilled by Petrohawk, located in Section 25, Range 8 West and Township 15 north drilled north into section 24, finished up week before last. Petrohawk classified this as an exploratiory well and I was "told" by personell at the site that they had to drill 1000 foot deeper to get into the Haynesville Shale. The TD was 17,260 feet with approximately 4000 foot vertical. I have been "told" that there is a fault running NW to SE in Township 15 North and this well was drilled on the east side of the Fault. If this is true then there would be a 1000 foot vertical slip on the fault or 1000 foot difference in where they are hitting the shale. Apparently the east side of this fault is deeper and they will have to drill down to find it. Again, I was "told" that they would be fracing this well in the next couple of weeks. I guess we will know then what it will look like.

Permalink Reply by Three D Farms on July 11, 2010 at 3:41

If memory serves me right, back in Feb of this yr. in Sec 9, T 16 Petrohawk built a huge well site. Next thing we know a gate was put up & the talk was that they had abandoned the site due to a fault line. For months there were seismic crews everywhere around us. Why would the company spend the money to build such a site if they knew beforehand that a fault line was there? Doesn't make sense to spend the time & money when they knew it was there all along. What do you guys think of this?

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on July 11, 2010 at 3:53

Three D, I think the public at large has a less than accurate perception of the abilities of the operators involved in the HS PLay. I see instances of such events as you mention constantly. I'll give one big example concerning the big dog in the Play, Chesapeake. CHK built a lease block of 90,000 acres across Harrison and Panola counties and north Caddo and Bossier parishes. Landowners in those areas often made the statement that CHK wouldn't be investing that kind of money if there wasn't a lot of gas just waiting to be drilled. Two to three years later (as lease terms near expiration) CHK puts all that leasehold up for sale. No offers are made. The leases expire. And CHK goes on investing in other areas. In this business even the biggest and smartest make mistakes. The good ones simply admit it and move on. They understand the risk involved and consider it just part of doing business.

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Permalink Reply by Three D Farms on July 11, 2010 at 15:59

Skip, I see what you mean. I just thought it to be odd to go to the extreme & then about the time it was finished, the site was abandoned. The talk now is that they will be coming in from the west side to avoid the fault line. Who knows? Seems to be a wait & see game when it comes to any of the oil/gas doings. Our lease will run out in July 2011 & I'll bet that we never hear another thing from them, especially since they have an option to lease but they have to pay what they did in our original lease. I don't think it will ever happen like it did around these parts again.

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Permalink Reply by Marc Stepman on July 12, 2010 at 3:09

They may come back. Who knows. With better 3D they may come back and something.

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Permalink Reply by Spring Branch,mineral owner on July 11, 2010 at 22:41

Jim Cobb, for what it is worth, the Cottingham well site which is in Section 25, but which will bottom in Section 24 (hence Cottingham 24) is not in Range 8 but rather Range 9. It is in 15/9. Just wanted to clear that up. I'll look tomorrow and see if the fault shows up on Petrohawk's map.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Cobb on July 12, 2010 at 3:14

Thanks Spring Branch, I thought about that this morning and figured I had it wrong. I am in 15/8, on the east side of the "Fault", the side no one seems interested in. Cheap lease ran out Friday before last and I have a lot of interest in the Cottingham 24 since it is next door!
Thanks again for the correction.

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