A federal environmental assessment will be prepared regarding Shell Western E&P Inc.'s proposed deep wildcat in southern Florida.
Shell proposed to the Bureau of Land Management to drill 3-1 Miccosukee, in 3-50s-35e, Broward County, to 18,800 ft.
Bottomhole location would be about 4,600 ft east of the surface spot, 32 miles east of Miles City. Shell plans to start the well in fourth quarter 1992, Petroleum Information reports.
The location is on pasture land on the Miccosukee Indian reservation about 50 miles northwest of downtown Miami and 50 miles south of Lake Okeechobee (OGJ, Feb. 4, 1991, p. 60,).
It is also about 12 miles northeast of Raccoon Point oil field in Collier County, discovered in 1977. PI notes that field produced 50,127 bbl of oil, 6 MMcf of gas, and 48,577 bbl of water during October 1991 from 11 wells operated by Exxon Exploration Co.
Lower Cretaceous Sunniland lime, which produces from about 11,400 ft in Raccoon Point field, is the only productive formation in South Florida.
REMOTE TERRITORY
Shell's well is to penetrate the entire sedimentary column.
Lying below Sunniland are Lower Cretaceous Punta Gorda anhydrite; the Able anhydrite-limestone, Twelve Mile limestone-dolomite, and West Felda shale members of the Lower Cretaceous Lehigh Acres formation; and Lower Cretaceous Pumpkin Bay limestone.
Shell attempted to find more Sunniland fields in the late 1960s and early 1970s but left South Florida after shooting more than 1,000 line miles of seismic and drilling 13 dry holes. It returned in about 1985 (OGJ, Apr. 11, 1988, p. 79).
One of the company's more recent seismic lines, a 95 mile Vibroseis run from Lake Okeechobee south to the tip of the Florida peninsula, passes close to the wildcat location.
PI says only two other wells have been drilled in Broward County. One was an 11,604 ft dry hole Sabine Corp. drilled in 1985 in 32-49s-35e. The other is a well drilled by Port Everglades Oil & Gas Co. in 1929 16-50s-42e in the Fort Lauderdale city limits. That wildcat was abandoned at 3,010 ft.
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
