Beach Energy Ltd., Adelaide, has spudded a well programmed to test Pierre shale on the West Florence prospect in Fremont County, Colo.
The Slanovich 32-12P well is anticipated to reach the Pierre at 5,000 ft, said Strata-X Ltd., Golden, Colo., which has a 41.67% interest. Beach holds the rest. The well is within 2 miles of Florence field, which produced 15 million bbl of oil from the Pierre formation.
Slanovich offets a 2007 well drilled by Mountain Petroleum that encountered numerous intervals of fractures and visible oil shows. That well established oil production from a deeper horizon but was not able to test the Pierre formation because of lost circulation zones.
Slanovich 32-12P well is being drilled so as to avoid the formation damage that occurred in the first wellbore. Beach Energy and Strata-X hold 3,300 acres in the area.
