Research sought on unconventional gas

Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), Sugar Land, Tex., has requested industry proposals for projects on gas shales, coalbed methane water management, and tight sands.

The full text of the RFPs is on the RPSEA web site. The proposals are due Jan. 12, 2009, for projects to start around April 2009.

The focus of the gas shales proposal is on the challenges associated with development of the shale resource from the Permian basin through the Fort Worth basin and in southern Appalachian shale gas basins.

Concepts may include characterization of parameters that differentiate high-performing wells and development of methods to assess production potential, model production results, delineate the fracture system, develop extra-extended lateral drilling techniques, develop steerable hydraulic fracs, and a host of other concepts.

Another request is for development of tools, techniques, and methods to greatly reduce the cost and environmental impact of CBM and shale gas development through more effective management of water used and produced in drilling, completion, stimulation, and production.

The tight sands solicitation seeks proposals for development of tools, techniques, and methods to increase commercial production and ultimate recovery from established tight gas sand formations and accelerate development of emerging and frontier tight gas plays. This work is to be focused on the Rocky Mountain region.

Gujarat State Petroleum Corp. has drilled 15 exploration wells and two appraisal wells on the Sanand/Miroli block in India’s Cambay basin, said partner GeoGlobal Resources Inc., Calgary.

The M-1, M-6, SE-2, SE-4, and SE-8 wells have been reported as discoveries. The SE-11 well went to TD 2,500 m and awaits testing, and SE-10 went to 1,900 m and is being logged.

The SE-8-A1 appraisal well, aimed at evaluating the Kalol pay zone encountered in SE-8, went to TD 1,450 m and is under test.

Niko Resources Ltd., Calgary, plans to earn a 25% nonoperated working interest from an affiliate of Black Gold Energy LLC in a nearly 5,000 sq km deepwater exploration block off southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The block was awarded recently to a group led by Marathon Oil Co. (OGJ Online, Oct. 22, 2008).

BPZ Resources Inc., Houston, has spud the CX11-15D well in Corvina field on Block Z-1 in the Pacific off northwestern Peru.

Targeting known oil and gas sands updip, the well is likely to be drillstem tested for gas and be dually completed. Oil production would begin, and gas would await start-up of the company’s gas-to-power project.

The next step is to begin redeveloping Albacora field by April 2009.

Petrominerales Ltd., Bogota, will acquire a 55% working interest in and become operator of Block 126 in Peru’s Ucayali basin.

A 1988 discovery well on the block tested oil and was plugged due to completion problems. The 105,000 sq km block has 1,200 line-km of recently reprocessed seismic.

Petrominerales will acquire 45% interest from Veraz Petroleum Ltd. and 10% from a third party for a combined $600,000.

Range Resources Corp., Fort Worth, said seven wells totaling 30 MMcfd from the Marcellus shale are connected to Pennsylvania’s first large-scale gas processing plant, operated by MarkWest Energy Partners LP.

Range plans to begin flowing more wells as two more gas processing plants are completed next year (OGJ Online, Oct. 22, 2008).

The company plans to enter 2009 with three horizontal rigs and boost that to six by the end of the year. It expects yearend 2009 production to reach a net 80-100 MMcfed.

Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, deferred a five-well Marcellus shale pilot in New York pending environmental and regulatory reviews and shifted its focus to Pennsylvania.

The company’s Fortuna Energy Inc. unit holds almost 120,000 acres of state controlled land in north-central Pennsylvania and is drilling a pilot in an area where it owns 19,200 net acres prospective for development. It was completing its first operated horizontal well this month.

Talisman Energy’s holding totals 640,000 net acres in both states in the emerging overpressured Marcellus play. It estimates gas in place in the Marcellus at 20-100 bcf/sq mile at 2,500-6,000 ft.

East

GMX Resources Inc., Oklahoma City, said its Callison-9H well in Harrison County, Tex., stabilized at 7.7 MMcfd of gas on a 22/64-in. choke with 5,200 psi flowing casing pressure from Jurassic Haynesville/Bossier shale.

The company ran an eight-stage frac in the well’s 2,200-ft lateral, its shortest planned lateral in the play. GMX has 100% working interest.

GMX is drilling the Bosh-11H and Baldwin-17H wells and expects to spud a fourth well within 2 weeks. The next 16 wells are expected to average 3,800-ft laterls and 11-12 frac stages. The company plans to drill 45 wells in 2009.

The Belin-1 well in the Hilltop area of the deep Bossier play has the potential to be Gastar Exploration Ltd.’s best well to date in terms of flow rate and reserves, the company said.

Logs indicated 150 net ft of pay in the middle and lower Bossier formations. TD is 18,800 ft.

The well’s three Lower Bossier pay zones have the highest measured porosity, up to 25%, of any well drilled by Gastar in the play.

Belin-1 also encountered two middle Bossier sands, including the Lanier sand, in a downdip location in a new fault block with indicated pay based on log analysis. The well, to be on line within 30 days, is to be completed in the two deepest zones first.

The Lanier sand has been shown to be productive in a downthrown fault block from the Wildman Trust-3 well, where Lanier was recently recompleted at an initial 21 MMcfd.

Devon Energy Corp. started production at the 5-3 Horseshoe Basin Unit well in the Vermillion Creek area of the Greater Green River basin in Sweetwater County, Wyo.

Output from Cretaceous Baxter shale totaled 21.7 MMcf of gas and 3,836 bbl of condensate in the first 6.5 days on line, and the current rate is 2.19 MMcfd and 412 b/d of condensate, said 50% working interest owner Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp., Denver. TD is 13,534 ft.

Three wells have been drilled, and Devon is acquiring 25 sq miles of 3D seismic in the area. The outlook for 2009 is for horizontal drilling in the Baxter, said Kodiak.