Amelia Resources LLC Announces the Sale of 85,000 Net Acres in the Louisiana Austin Chalk Play

January 03, 2018 06:00 PM Eastern Standard Time  businesswire.com

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amelia Resources LLC announces the sale of 85,000 net acres in the Louisiana Austin Chalk play.

Amelia Resources announced today that it has sold 85,000 net acres of newly acquired leases in the Louisiana Austin Chalk play to an undisclosed large U.S.-based operator for $87 million.

Amelia's President, Kirk Barrell, said, "With the rapid emergence of this exciting new play, this focused package of leases presents a large new player an excellent acreage foundation to build upon. Frac design improvements in the Austin Chalk of Texas along with very high initial flow rates are bringing more attention to this play across both Texas and Louisiana. We are excited to deliver an operator to the play with significant experience in drilling and completing these same reservoirs in Texas."

With 27 years of experience across the Tuscaloosa Trend, Amelia Resources has evaluated over 2,000 wells in the Austin Chalk across Texas and Louisiana. Utilizing a diverse dataset of well logs, geochemistry, seismic, and petrophysics, the company has confirmed and defined the most economically attractive areas of the play.

Amelia’s buyer has acquired this large acreage block in the updip, normally pressured region of the play. Barrell stated, "Our acreage block is geologically focused targeting a shallower, normally pressured, oil-rich, porous reservoir across unfaulted monoclinal dip. With the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) occurring 700 feet below the Austin Chalk, the updip region of the play presents a potential ‘stack play’ opportunity." The company plans to debut a second large acreage package at the NAPE Summit in Houston, February 5–9, 2018.

Amelia Resources LLC is a privately held exploration and production company. The company generates drilling prospects and is actively engaged in several projects across the onshore Gulf Coast. Amelia was founded in 2003 by Kirk Barrell and has offices in New Orleans and St. Francisville, Louisiana. The company leverages its 27 years of geological and geophysical experience to obtain strategic positions in drilling projects. Updates on the Austin Chalk and TMS projects are provided by the company at www.tuscaloosatrend.blogspot.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding various oil and gas discoveries, oil and gas exploration, development and production activities, anticipated and potential production and flow rates and the economic potential of properties. Accuracy of these forward-looking statements depends on assumptions about events that change over time and is thus susceptible to periodic change based on actual experience and new developments. Amelia Resources LLC cautions readers that it assumes no obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements in this press release and, except to the extent required by applicable law, does not intend to update or otherwise revise these statements more frequently than quarterly. Important factors that might cause future results to differ from these forward-looking statements include adverse conditions such as high temperature and pressure that could lead to mechanical failures or increased costs, variations in the market prices of oil and natural gas, drilling results, unanticipated fluctuations in flow rates of producing wells, oil and natural gas reserves expectations, the ability to satisfy future cash obligations and environmental costs, and other general exploration and development risks and hazards.

 

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What is COP?

Jay, the going price was $900 to $1100 an acre. In that "round" he took 7% of the lease bonus with a 3% override. And it is ConocoPhillips. Most of the acreage was in East and West Feliciana with a few thousand in East Baton Rouge.

90% of the area he leased is above the shelf. Going to be a lot of fracking going on.

EBR is below the shelf correct.

Using Joe's bonus example above let's use $1,000/acre and a forty acre mineral interest.  If $40,000 is a significant amount of money after deducting for federal and state taxes and will accomplish something of worth for you and your family, it might be worth considering.  However, if economic wells are drilled, your long term royalty income will be less by a factor of 25% if you were to lease for a fifth but the operating company was willing to pay a quarter. 

With horizontal development and large acreage units, there will be multiple wells drilled over the life of unit production.  As a experiment, take the maximum number of wells allowed in a unit and multiply by the number of barrels per well that the operating company claims are recoverable.  Plug in a value for a barrel of crude, be conservative.  If there is significant natural gas production, add that also. 

Keeping in mind the present value of a dollar, spread that production over the estimated life of a well, say 20 years as an example.  To calculate your portion of the money generated by those wells, divide your acreage by the acres in the unit and multiply by your royalty fraction.  That many place decimal you get is your interest in unit production.  Off course you will be charged for costs associated with marketing the oil and gas so make a guesstimate of how much will be taken out for taxes and post production charges.  Even for a modest 40 acre mineral tract, the net income for the life of the wells in your unit is a big number for forty acres.  Now reduce that number by 25% and you have the amount that you traded for that $40,000 upfront bonus check.

What does the final 25% reduction in your formula represent?

The difference between the royalties paid over the life of a lease at a quarter royalty vs.a fifth.

Skip and Jay, this came out of the "blue" so to speak. I've been trying to get someone interested for years. I pitched this to a group in Houston 3 or 4 years ago. Their  response was "Do you have 3-d seismic". You don't need 3-d seismic when you have 1500 ft of fractured formation. So that died.

Then recently we had contact with Cinco. Their offer was $250 an acre and 20% for a 5 and 5 lease. Then someone called and offered $250 an acre and 20% and a 5 year lease. I countered with a 3 year lease he immediately countered with 3 and 2. We were supposed to meet  and finalize an agreement. Then Kirk puts together his block. That blew the Cinco and I assume EOG out. I tried calling this last landman to see if there was any further interest. I have not received a call back yet. So my point is I tried to get interest in this area for several years with no luck. This is what I had hoped for and with the kind of bonus they are offering I'm going with Kirk. He has a proven ability to put together the geology and acreage that gets results.

Skip, I'm aware there is a difference in the 20% and 25% royalty. The way I see it the HZ wells are considerably  more expensive to drill. I'm willing to spot a company 5% to drill and frack/sandpack an AC well.

I understand, Joe.  There is no royalty without a producing well.  However if this is an economic play, it may turn out similar to the Haynesville Shale.  Many owners of large acreage tracts were leased early  for a fifth but once the development began in earnest and all the competitors started looking to expand their position, 25% quickly became the norm regardless of the tract size.

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