Utah: Berry developing multiple oil zones in Uinta

Aug. 4, 2011
Berry Petroleum Co., Denver, estimated that its risked resource potential in the Uinta basin is 65 million bbl of oil equivalent excluding its proved developed reserves in the basin of 11 million boe.

Berry Petroleum Co., Denver, estimated that its risked resource potential in the Uinta basin is 65 million bbl of oil equivalent excluding its proved developed reserves in the basin of 11 million boe.

In addition to its position in the Eocene Green River formation, Berry has more than 60,000 net prospective acres in the Uteland Butte member of Green River and more than 100,000 acres in the Eocene Wasatch.

Berry began drilling its Uinta assets in 2003 and has concentrated on commingled, vertical production from several Green River members including the Uteland Butte. During Berry’s development, more than 400 vertical wells have been completed in the Uteland Butte across the Brundage Canyon, Lake Canyon, and Ashley Forest areas.

Of the Uteland Butte completions, Berry has tested 30 wells in the Uteland Butte on an isolated basis with 30-day production rates of 10-80 boe/d.

In the quarter ended June 30, Berry participated in two nonoperated Uteland Butte horizontal wells in Lake Canyon. The first well had a 30-day initial production rate average of 717 boe/d, and the second well recently came on production at an encouraging initial rate.

The Uteland Butte is well correlated in a cross-section of wire line logs from these two horizontals wells to a series of vertical wells across Lake Canyon to Brundage Canyon and Ashley Forest over to Monument Butte. Berry plans to drill three operated Uteland Butte horizontals and participate in three nonoperated horizontal wells during the rest of 2011.

In addition to Berry’s traditional vertical Green River development in Brundage Canyon, in the past 2 years the company has drilled 13 vertical Wasatch and commingled Green River-Wasatch wells in Lake Canyon with average 30-day initial production rates of 100-175 boe/d. Berry plans to drill 30 vertical Green River wells and 13 comingled Green River-Wasatch wells in addition to the three operated Uteland Butte horizontal wells in 2011.

Capturing full value of the Uinta resource depends on several factors such as de-risking the asset through the drill bit, controlling costs, securing drilling permits, increased refining capacity in the region, and expanding the existing infrastructure, Berry said.