Maben well sets Black Warrior natural gas pace

Jan. 1, 2001
The most recent completion in Maben gas field in northeastern Mississippi could be the highest flowing well ever in the Black Warrior basin.

The most recent completion in Maben gas field in northeastern Mississippi could be the highest flowing well ever in the Black Warrior basin.

At 9 to 10 MMcfd of gas, the rate is insignificant by world standards but likely commercial in the local area.

TotalFinaElf's US subsidiary Fina does not comment on its exploration and development activity in and around Maben field, 12 miles west of Starkville. If the rate is accurate, it is almost double that of the rates that state production reports attribute to Fina's other wells in the small but geologically important field.

The 1 Love Heirs, in 22-19n-12e, Oktibbeha County, produces through perforations in Ordovician Knox dolomite at 14,387-594 ft. This also makes it the deepest sustained production in northern Mississippi.

Fina is drilling the 1 Winters (formerly Arceneaux), in 36-19n-12e, toward a permitted depth of 15,700 ft. Drilling problems intervened below 12,000 ft, resulting in a sidetrack operation several thousand feet shallower.

Gas rates Fina has gauged from the Sanders and Richardson wells and previously from Love Heirs have mostly been 3 to 5 MMcfd.

The geologic significance lies in the fact that the Knox at Maben is the equivalent of formations that produce significant hydrocarbons as far west as Wilburton, Okla., and West Texas, and yield more austere production as far northeast as Tennessee, New York, and Canada's Maritime Provinces.