By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 23 -- A gas shale play is taking off in northern Alabama on the east side of the Valley and Ridge Province.
The Alabama Oil & Gas Board set a hearing for Feb. 16 in Ashville, Ala., on an application by Dominion Black Warrior Basin Inc. to establish field rules and 320-acre well spacing for a 40-sq-mile area in northern St. Clair County.
The field, proposed to be named Big Canoe Creek, is underlain by a Cambrian Conasauga shale gas pool logged as productive between 1,946 ft and 6,944 ft in Dominion's Newman well in SW NE 27-13s-4e, St. Clair County. Dominion spud the well on Apr. 6, 2006, and drilled to TD 7,039 ft.
The upper and lower productive limits of the Conasauga shale gas pool in the proposed field have yet to be fully defined, Dominion's application said.
The area: 24, 25, and 36-13s-3e; 19 through 36-13s-4e; 19, 20, and 29 through 32-13s-5e; 1 and 12-14s-3e; and 1 through 11-14s-4e.
Overall, operators have taken several hundred thousand acres aimed at exploring shale plays in the Valley and Ridge and in the Black Warrior basin to the west. Leasing is reported in Etowah and Cherokee counties, Alabama, and at least as far northeast as Chattooga County, Georgia.
The company has drilled at least eight wells in the general area in the past year or more.
Dominion also asked that "production allowables be established and that production royalties be escrowed pending further orders of the board, after notice to establish the ultimate production unit."
Parent company Dominion, Richmond, Va., in November 2006 announced plans to divest most of its oil and gas assets by mid-2007 to concentrate on its electricity generation and utility businesses (OGJ Online, Nov. 1, 2006).
Dominion E&P claims 6.6 tcf of proved gas reserves, of which it would retain 1.1 tcf of low-risk properties in the Appalachian basin.
