SHELL PLANNING 17,700 FT WILDCAT IN EVERGLADES

Shell Western E&P Inc., Houston, has applied to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to drill a deep wildcat on federal land in southern Florida. The western Broward County venture would be directionally drilled to a measured depth of 18,800 ft in an attempt to penetrate the entire sedimentary column in the area. Shell has proposed extensive environmental mitigation measures at the well to protect the surrounding Everglades, wildlife, and water supplies.

Feb. 4, 1991

2 min read

Shell Western E&P Inc., Houston, has applied to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to drill a deep wildcat on federal land in southern Florida.

The western Broward County venture would be directionally drilled to a measured depth of 18,800 ft in an attempt to penetrate the entire sedimentary column in the area.

Shell has proposed extensive environmental mitigation measures at the well to protect the surrounding Everglades, wildlife, and water supplies.

The drill site would be on the Miccosukee Indian reservation north of Interstate 75, the two lane Everglades Parkway known as "Alligator Alley," and just west of the L28 canal.

ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES

The bottomhole location of the well lies under a protected conservation area that provides drinking water to millions of people in southern Florida.

Shell's mitigation plan calls for a closed drilling mud system; use of water based, low toxicity mud; plastic lining beneath the rig and cuttings storage area; zero discharge of stormwater runoff or drilling fluids; and additional casing strings to protect fresh water.

The company would also conduct analyses of the hydrology, archaeology, vegetation, and wildlife in the area.

If environmental concerns can be satisfied, the well would be drilled from a surface location in 3-50s-35e directionally to a bottomhole location 4,600 ft east in 2-50s-35e.

The proposed location, about 12 miles northeast of Exxon Co., U.S.A.'s Raccoon Point oil field in extreme eastern Collier County, is drained grassland presently used for cattle grazing.

The well's 17,700 ft true vertical depth would be close to Florida's land depth record of 18,670 ft set at Bass Enterprises Production Co. 12-2 Collier, 12-52s-27e, a dry hole drilled in Collier County in 1975.

Most production in Sunniland Trend fields further west is from Cretaceous Sunniland limestone at 11,000-12,000 ft.

Shell plans to start drilling as soon as all permits are obtained. Site of the exploratory well would be about 50 miles northwest of downtown Miami and 50 miles south of Lake Okeechobee.

Shell returned to South Florida in 1985 to shoot improved seismic surveys after having left the area in the early 1970s (OGJ, Apr. 11, 1988, p. 79).

The permit for which Shell applied is for drilling on federal land in Broward County adjacent to a conservation area that provides drinking water to a large area of southern Florida.