ULTRADEEP ANADARKO EXPLORATION RETURNS IN HIGHLY PRESSURED WASHITA COUNTY AREA

Dec. 17, 1990
G. Alan Petzet Exploration Editor Ultradeep exploration is slowly returning to the Anadarko basin. An Oklahoma City independent spudded a wildcat in Washita County last week that is scheduled to evaluate mainly Siluro-Devonian Hunton and Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle. The well is Park Avenue Exploration Co. 1-36 USF&G, in 36-9n-17w, about 6 miles southeast of Cordell, Okla. Drilling time to 26,000 ft is estimated at 320-365 days. Parker Drilling Co. has the drilling contract. Park Avenue began
G. Alan Petzet
Exploration Editor

Ultradeep exploration is slowly returning to the Anadarko basin.

An Oklahoma City independent spudded a wildcat in Washita County last week that is scheduled to evaluate mainly Siluro-Devonian Hunton and Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle.

The well is Park Avenue Exploration Co. 1-36 USF&G, in 36-9n-17w, about 6 miles southeast of Cordell, Okla.

Drilling time to 26,000 ft is estimated at 320-365 days. Parker Drilling Co. has the drilling contract.

Park Avenue began planning for the project 5 years ago and has close to 12,000 acres leased across the structure.

Expected formation tops are Pennsylvanian Granite Wash at 4,490 ft, Atoka 8,770 ft, Morrow 11,020 ft, Springer 13,600 ft, Mississippian Chester 17,950 ft, Meramec 19,210 ft, Hunton 20,300 ft, Ordovician Viola 21,400 ft, and Arbuckle 22,900 ft.

The well site is 17 miles southeast of the Lone Star Producing Co. 1 Bertha Rogers, in 27-10n-19w, completed in 1974 at a total depth of 31,441 ft. The 1 Rogers' depth of penetration is exceeded only by that of a stratigraphic test drilled in the U. S. S. R.

CORDELL ANTICLINE

High pressure in this sector of south-central Washita County has challenged exploration operators for decades.

Two other deep wells have been drilled on the south flank of the Cordell anticline, as Park Avenue interprets it.

Phillips Petroleum Co. in 1968 and Forest Oil Corp. in 1974 built mud weight to 18 lb/gal at those wells, in sections adjacent to the new stake, to counter Hunton pressures calculated at more than 21,000 psi.

Hunton is normally pressured elsewhere in the Anadarko basin.

Gas shows were recorded on mud logs as both wells penetrated Hunton, but neither was production tested in that formation.

Park Avenue plans to rig up for hydrogen sulfide as a precaution, but none was encountered in the Phillips and Forest wells.

The new well is a few hundred feet from a Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. well, 1 School Land Tract, drilled in 1948 to near the top of Lower Morrow at 13,500 ft.

The Stanolind well flowed at a rate of 2.2 MMcfd of gas on a Granite Wash drillstem test at 7,570-7,662 ft. It also flowed 250 bbl of oil in 7 hr from another Granite Wash zone at 9,849-54 ft but was plugged due to mechanical problems.

OTHER NEARBY WELLS

The first shallow drilling on the structure occurred in the mid-1940s, with numerous shallow DST and production tests reported in Granite Wash.

The former Carter Oil Co. drilled several wells in the general area in the late 1950s, one of which blew out in Morrow-Springer.

The former Texas Pacific Oil Co. drilled several wells on the Betche lease in the early 1970s and waged protracted bouts with the high pressure in Pennsylvanian zones.

Helmerich & Payne Inc., Tulsa, had to cement drill pipe in 1983 to effect the first "completion" on the Cordell anticline.

The H&P 1 Baccus, in 8-8n-16w, opened Northeast Rainey field. Now abandoned, the well had an initial flow of 2.3 MMcfd of gas through a 13/64 in. choke with 1,793 psi flowing tubing pressure from Morrow-Springer open hole at 12,380-519 ft.

Encouraging Park Avenue are successful deep Hunton gas completions earlier this year by Exxon Co., U.S.A. and Unocal Corp. in Northeast Mayfield field, Beckham County, 50 miles northwest of the Park Avenue wildcat.

Those two wells, about 1 mile apart, flowed at initial rates of about 20 MMcfd of gas each from Hunton at about 24,400 ft.

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