Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by FXEF on November 18, 2011 at 7:16

Not an error, SONRIS reports surface location of wellhead, not the section where the lateral runs.

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on November 18, 2011 at 7:20

It's not an error or glitch.  It is the way that the Department of Natural Resources/Office of Conservation has always organized wells.  By the section containing the surface location.  That was logical for the decades of vertical or directional wells however it does cause some difficulty in an age of horizontal wells many with surface locations outside of the section being produced.  The way to deal with this is to change the way you search the database.  Instead of searching by section-township-range and entering data in all three search boxes, you should simply leave the section box blank.  This will pull up all the wells in the township organized by section.  If you can not remember the serpentine numbering system for sections in a township print yourself a township grid.  With very rare exceptions Haynesville laterals run north and south.  Therefore if you are looking for a well producing from Section 16, as an example, you would need to review the wells in Sections 9 and 21 as those are the sections immediately north and south respectively.  This type of search has many advantages as you can see all the wells in the immediate vicinity, the status and the operator.

Permalink Reply by J B Nabors on November 18, 2011 at 7:47

" . . . Therefore if you are looking for a well producing from Section 16, as an example, you would need to review the wells in Sections 9 and 21 as those are the sections immediately north and south respectively.  This type of search has many advantages as you can see all the wells in the immediate vicinity, the status and the operator. . . ."

 

yep.  That may work fine if your area of search is in or near the center of a Township.  And if your "section of interest" is a border section (example:  S6-T12N-R13W) then you still have to search in T13N-R13W; T12N-R14W, as wells as T12N-R13W.  And if the well descriptions are not clearly written, you still don't know what the heck you're looking at!  . . . or where it is. (Unless you are really, really good with UTM coordinates and Lambert grids!)

 

Encourage your child to learn abstracting!  It has a future.   

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on November 18, 2011 at 8:00

The future is just fine for those of us who understand the Public Land Survey System.  And if I had any children I would counsel them against tilting at windmills.   LOL!

Permalink Reply by J B Nabors on November 18, 2011 at 7:23

Well, I have to consider that "non-acceptable".   It means one now has to search for a specific section by searching ALL eight adjoining sections?   There really needs to be SOME correlation within the 'target' or producing section.

 

Glory Be!    Invest Now in your local Abstract Company!

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on November 18, 2011 at 7:28

Feel free to complain to Commissioner Angelle, JB.  However he will likely point out that there are only two adjoining sections to be searched, not eight.

Permalink Reply by J B Nabors on November 18, 2011 at 7:36

Thanks Skip.  

 

I take your reply to mean that thus far the Commission is only allowing "adjacent site" drilling in a N-S direction?   Never E-W?  and never on a diagonal?    

 

How about over in the Toledo Bend area?   I can't see those as being NS bores.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on November 18, 2011 at 7:54

You're welcome, JB.  No, the Commissiion will allow a surface location with a lateral in most any direction that an operator may wish that meets regulatory quidelines.  The north-south Haynesville lateral axis is owing to the natural fracture pattern in the shale.  An operator can drill the vertical portion of a well  on an east-west diagonal into an adjoining section before turning horizontal on a north-south axis.  That would serve for instances like Toledo Bend.  As I mention in my previous reply, there are few and  rare exceptions to the common north-south lateral Haynesville pattern.  If you can come up with an organizational database program that changes with every possible nuance of horizontal drilling by all means suggest it to the Commissioner.

Permalink Reply by epnut99 on November 18, 2011 at 7:41

JB,

The SONRIS LITE well search by STR only considers the point of entry of the well which can be confusing with horizontal drilling. Try using the SONRIS GIS feature to search instead. Click on GIS NEW (TEST) then zoom in to your area of interest. In the Table of Contents menu, open "Oil/Gas" and check the box for "HS Wells" and "Well Bottom Holes and Bores." This will show you both the point of entry and the the lateral for each well. You will also want to enable sections under the Boundaries menu and turn on the labels for each item by clicking the red "A" underneath. If this sounds confusing, you can start with the tutorial that opens with the map. Hope this helps.