Maquoketa shale object of Salina basin drilling

Feb. 16, 2012
A private Oklahoma City independent will test the Upper Ordovician Maquoketa shale for oil at a horizontal well in the Salina basin of central Kansas.

A private Oklahoma City independent will test the Upper Ordovician Maquoketa shale for oil at a horizontal well in the Salina basin of central Kansas.

Husky Ventures Inc. obtained a permit to drill a vertical hole to 3,400 ft and core the Maquoketa, then kick off and drill a northwestward lateral as long as 4,500 ft in the shale, IHS Inc. reported.

The site is 25-17s-4w, McPherson County, in the southern Salina basin 60 miles northwest of Wichita. Lindsborg field was developed in the late 1930s-early 1940s mainly for oil in Ordovician Viola, but IHS reports that wells in four adjoining square miles produced from the Maquoketa.

The Maquoketa is the equivalent of the Sylvan shale, which underlies vast areas of the Midcontinent.