Prime Rock Resources, Midland, a portfolio company of Lime Rock Partners, and privately held New Dawn Energy LLC, Houston, have agreed to jointly develop properties contributed by both companies in the Cretaceous Austin chalk play of Louisiana.
The effort involves 120,000 net acres in Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Rapides, and Vernon parishes, with most in Masters Creek oil and gas field. The companies expect development to begin in the fourth quarter.
Prime Rock and New Dawn will collaborate to acquire additional acreage.
Louisiana’s traditional Austin Chalk play is in Vernon and Rapides parishes in the western half of the state, where Masters Creek, West Masters Creek, and Sugartown oil and gas fields are the strongest producers, according to the state Mineral and Energy Board (MEB).
With horizontal drilling and modern completions, operators in recent years have extended the productive fairway eastward.
An MEB report last year cited a late-2017 completion of a horizontal well in Avoyelles Parish, EOG Eagle Ranch 14-1H, which tested 1,120 b/d of oil and 1.157 MMcfd of natural gas.
