John McCaslin
Exploration Editor
There seems to be a flicker of exploratory success in Appalachia that could relight the gas hunt that began several years ago in the Eastern Overthrust Belt.
Recent action in Jordan Run field, West Virginia, new producers in several counties in the state, a deeper pool project in southeastern Ohio, new production in Centre County, Penn., and new gas prospects in the Morgantown area should set the stage for another round of wildcatting and field development work in a region that has been quiet for far too many months.
EASTERN OVERTHRUST DRILLING
Despite a drop in the number of active rigs working in the East, the industry is still busy in scattered corners of Appalachia.
Equitable Resources Exploration Co. 2569 Dr. Frederick Moomau, Union District, western Grant County, Jordan Run field, West Virginia, flowed 6.5 MMcfd of gas in December from the Oriskany at 8,654 ft, adding another significant well to the Eastern Overthrust Belt chain of producers which runs northeast-southwest from Pennsylvanian into West Virginia. Jordan Run was opened in 1982 by Union Drilling Co., an Equitable unit. Columbia Natural Resources has also been an active worker in this interesting part of the Appalachian basin.
Petroleum Information also notes that Allegheny & Western Energy completed a dual zone producer in southern Kanawha County, 13 miles southeast of Charleston in Campbell Creek field. Flow was 144,000 cu ft of gas from the Berea at 2,415 ft. A well in northeastern Ritchie County, Eastern American Energy Corp. 21 Blau-Taylor, Pennsboro-Tollgat?, field, flowed 1.9 MMcfd of gas from the Devonian. Location is 30 miles east of Parkersburg.
Cambro-Ordovician Trempealeau at 8,000 ft is the objective for Excalibur Exploration Inc. at 1 Booher, southwestern Portage County, Ravenna field, Ohio. Cemco Operating Co. will drill to 8,000 ft and the Precambrian at a deeper pool wildcat, 18 miles west of Marietta in western Washington County, inside shallow pays of Bartlett field.
Another Trempealeau test will be at Belden & Blake 2 Andreas, Tuscarawas County, inside a Clinton Silurian area, 4 miles northwest of Dover, Ohio.
Farther to the northeast in Centre County, Penn., there is new gas production at Eastern States Exploration Co. 37 Litke, Council Run field. Flow was 5.5 MMcfd of gas from upper Devonian at 5,010 ft. pay is Lock Haven at 3,858-4,844 ft.
There is new Devonian production in Wilbur field, Tyler County, -and in Jarvisville field, Harrison County, 7 miles northwest of Clarksburg. Last year, there was a big gas well reported 10 miles northeast of Morgantown in the Onondaga zone. Well was R.E. Fox & Associates 2 Martin Marietta & Smith, Monongalia County.
Flows up to 25 MMcfd of gas were reported. Well was on the eastern flank of the Chestnut Hill anticline, 3 quarters of a mile southwest of an Oriskany discovery completed by Fox in 1988 in southern Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Nearest production in West Virginia is 6 miles southwest in Burns Chapel Tuscarora Silurian field.
MAY BRING NOW DISCOVERIES
Wildcat discoveries along the Eastern Overthrust Belt have been few and far between.
It was the Keyser field discovery in 1979 that set off the wave of exploratory interest and drilling along the 1,000 mile belt. The entire belt is characterized by severe folding and faulting. In Pennsylvania, it was the Amoco and others period beginning in 1977 that found gas in deeper zones. During the years following 1977, a dozen or more new fields were found in central and southwestern Pennsylvania.
The nation's cradle of the oil industry will continue to surprise us for years to come.
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.