Field reports indicate that Shell Western Exploration & Production LP, Houston, has been spearheading a play for gas in northeastern New Mexico’s nonproducing Tucumcari basin.
The company tested gas from an indicated discovery well in Guadalupe County after it assumed operation from an independent. Shell has drilled two more wells to about 13,000 ft on its own, is preparing to spud a third, and has reportedly completed a 3D seismic survey of as much as 80 sq miles.
Shell filed reports with the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division in late 2008 on stimulation and testing of the discovery well (CB Webb No. 1), on a fee lease in 25-11n-23e, in the Cuervo subbasin 20 miles northeast of Santa Rosa (see map, OGJ, Sept. 17, 2001, p. 36).
Shell assumed operation of the well from Cuervo Exploration LLC, a group of private independents comprised of Inter-American Corp., Dallas, Ceja Corp., Tulsa, and Gunn Oil Co., Wichita Falls, Tex.
Cuervo Exploration drilled and cased the CB Webb well in 2006 but didn’t perforate due to internal disagreements among the partners about completion procedures and economic viability.
Upon taking over from Cuervo, Shell conducted multiday flow tests between August 2007 and January 2008. Shell also reported a flow rate of 1.74 MMcfd of gas and 47 b/d of water from Pennsylvanian Strawn sandstones of low permeability and high thermal maturity, at casing pressures of up to 800 psi.
Shell also reported having perforated the well in 10 intervals between 7,950 ft and 10,783 ft (all Pennsylvanian-aged) and reported a multiple completion in the 10 zones. The total depth on the discovery well was 10,927 ft, and the well is plugged back to 10,814 ft. There was no indication when Shell might be capable of starting gas production. Low commodity prices have led the company to rethink participation in some new projects (OGJ, Feb. 2, 2009, p. 43).
Other acreage holders in the greater Tucumcari area include Ceja, David Petroleum Corp., Roswell, NM, Inter-American, Hyperion Exploration, Dallas, and Yates Petroleum Corp., Artesia, NM. Ceja, Inter-American, and Yates are believed to each hold 100,000 acres or more.
Ronald F. Broadhead, geologist at the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources at Socorro, published a positive assessment of the potential of Cuervo and other so-called “elevator basins” or troughs of eastern New Mexico in Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ, Jan. 8, 15, and 22, 2001). The current prospectors regard these studies as the prime catalyst for activity in the basin.