Alabama
Longford Corp., Calgary, said five recently drilled coalbed methane wells encountered more than 80 net ft of coal, some of the thickest total coal sections found in the Black Warrior basin.
The wells, near Moundville 20 miles south of Tuscaloosa, encountered individual seams as thick as 22 ft in the Pottsville formation between 700 and 3,400 ft deep. Dewatering is to begin in January 2007.
Texas - East
Wentworth Energy Inc., Palestine, Tex., will begin permitting the first of as many as eight offset locations on the same structural feature after its first well on a 27,557-acre mineral block in Anderson and Freestone counties in East Texas is a gas discovery in Cretaceous Woodbine. CAOF potential at the 1 Brakens well is 2.1 MMcfd. Woodbine, perforated in two zones at 4,918-48 ft overall, had calculated bottomhole pressure of 2,050 psi.
Meanwhile, Marathon Oil Co. signed a 3-year agreement to lease 9,000 acres of the 27,557 acres to drill deep wells. The two companies signed a joint operating agreement to partner in the development of the shallower Woodbine and Rodessa formations on those 9,000 acres.
Wyoming
Questar E&P, Salt Lake City, plugged and abandoned the deep exploratory portion of its Stewart Point 15-29 well on the Pinedale anticline in the northern Green River basin.
The company said it failed to establish commercial production from the Cretaceous Hilliard and Rock Springs formations.
Questar E&P drilled to TD 19,520 ft and briefly gauged sweet, dry gas at the rate of 10.7 MMcfd from Hilliard at 18,500-19,400 ft in what it said appears to have been industry’s first attempt to frac and produce from shale at these depths and pressures (OGJ Online, July 11, 2006). Shut-in pressure was as high as 13,500 psi.
Questar E&P recorded an after-tax charge of $6.3 million related to abandonment of the deep part of the well, which was later recompleted as a commercial well in the Cretaceous Lance pool.