Woodford Shale - Natural Gas Field - Arkoma Basin Oklahoma
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What is the Woodford Shale Formation? The
Woodford Shale Natural Gas Field ( Oklahoma Shale ) is located in the Southeastern Oklahoma. To many oil and
gas companies, the Woodford Shale field holds a promising source of Natural Gas. This Natural Gas is trapped in the
shale rock thousands of feet below that ground. Companies first drill vertical wells, and then drill horizontally
with fracturing techniques which involves fracturing the shale rock deposits with high pressured water.
This then releases the trapped gas. The Woodford Shale find is the result of what has happened at the Barnett Shale find for the past 20 years. Companies have gained a vast amount of the experience drilling wells at Barnett and can
use this experience along with new technologies when they drill at the Woodford Shale Gas Field.
Over 1,500 wells
have already been drilled with many more to come. The sweet spots located in the Woodford Shale are McIntosh County
to Hughes, Coal, Pittsburg and Atoka counties. Companies are leasing land in order to explore for natural gas. In addition, these landholders often get up to 15% royalties on the Natural Gas found at Woodford Shale. Fresh news in 2009, Marathon Oil has announced they are drilling in Canadian County, OK.
Back to Horizontal Drilling. Many years ago companies
wouldn't be drilling this Woodford shale because of old technology's and the price of natural gas was low. Now
it makes economic sense. Although Horizontal wells at Woodford Shale cost alot more then vertical wells, soaring natural
gas prices have made these shale plays a gold mine. Its a huge frenzy similar to the gold rush. People are becoming
millionaires just for leasing their land to natural gas companies!
Geologists have know about woodford shale
for a long time but companies have only started exploring it ten years ago. Drilling only started several years ago.
This has boosted the average salary of the citizens from 26,000 to near 35,000-40,000 per year in McAlester. Some say
if you drive through Atoka, Coalgate, and McAlester, they are totally transformed. Great wealth is being created every
year.
- Devon Energy DVN - In the Woodford Shale
in Eastern Oklahoma's Arkoma Basin, we are running three operated rigs and will continue at that pace for the remainder
of 2009. We are achieving outstanding per well recoveries from our long lateral horizontals.
In the first quarter, we brought
11 operated wells on line with an average IP rate of 7.4 million cubic feet per day. These IP's point out how our results
in the Woodford have improved over time.
In
late 2007 for comparison, we are achieving per well IPs of about 2 million to 4 million per day. Devon’s net production
in the play climb to an average of 79 million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day in the first quarter, up 23% from the fourth
quarter average and nearly triple the first quarter 2008 rate.
In our recently announced Cana Woodford Shale play in Western Oklahoma, Devon has established the industry's
largest lease position with 109,000 net acres. We currently have four operated rigs running. Much like we did in the early
days of the Barnett, we are focused on drilling wells across our Cana acreage to fully evaluate and to de-risk the resource.
- Chesapeake Energy CHK- CHK sold their Arkoma Woodford
Shale assets to XTO and the British Petroleum for $2 billion or over $3 per share and at the time of the sale
less than 2% of our crude reserves were in the Arkoma, Woodford.
- Penn Virginia PVA- PVA announces that it has established a position in the Woodford Shale ( Caney ).
In the third quarter of 2008, we participated in three (0.5 net) non-operated horizontal Woodford
Shale wells in the Arkoma Basin, producing at initial rates of approximately 3.6, 4.6 and 2.7 MMcfe per day (working interests
of 11, 31 and 13 percent, respectively). Based on the encouraging results of the five Woodford Shale wells in which we have
participated to date, we plan to continue to participate in the drilling of additional wells in the near term in the Arkoma
Basin. Our internally generated Woodford Shale prospect in the Anadarko Basin will be tested during the fourth quarter of
2008. Update: One (1.0 net) Woodford Shale well is under evaluation and all of the remaining wells
were successfully drilled and completed. Production in the first quarter averaged 31.7 MMcfe per day, 98 percent higher than
the 16.1 MMcfe per day produced in the first quarter of 2008 and flat compared to the 31.8 MMcfe per day produced in the fourth
quarter of 2008.
- XTO Energy XTO - XTO Energy has exposure to Woodford/Caney Shale - 120,000 acres and counting. We currently have 5 rigs
in the Woodford shale. We have drilled some of
the best wells in this last quarter that we drilled since we've been in the play, two wells coming at 6 million a day
that were scattered across two different fields. And then we had our first well in the McAlister area in which we have a large
acreage position, came in at over 4 million a day. We think these kinds of wells are 4 to 5 Bcf wells. So there are areas
of the Woodford that don't pan out as well,
we believe our acreage is in the heart. And we will end up with better performance than lot of our peers.
- PetroQuest Energy PQ- PQ recently announced Woodford Shale Update. The Company has
approximately 48,000 net acres in the Woodford Shale trend and estimates that its current net production from its Oklahoma
properties is approximately 40 MMcfe per day. 2009 Update: During the fourth quarter, we initiated production from five operated Woodford horizontal wells. We have one operated rig in the Woodford, but have stopped drilling due to weak commodity prices and relatively high service cost. We will
monitor rig and other drilling cost closely and be prepared to react quickly, when project economics improve to higher prices,
lower cost or a combination of both
- St Mary Land & Exploration SM - Recently, the Company successfully completed a four well simul-fracing pilot in the Woodford
program, resulting in five horizontal wells producing in one section. The four recently completed wells are presently
flowing back load water. Results from this pilot will be important in the determination of the optimum spacing for further
development.
- Quicksilver Resources KWK- Quicksilver KWK is exploring the Woodford and Barnett Shales: The company is beginning to test the Woodford formation out in our Delaware Basin project in West Texas. We will be drilling
several more wells in the next few months. Our plan is to commingle the Woodford with the overlying Barnett. The team will also evaluate additional formations up the hole. And we'll
talk about these results as we've said before, probably by year-end.
.
- Questar STR- Questar STR is active in the Woodford Shale Play. And
we're also pleased with early results in the emerging Anadarko Woodford shale play in Canadian and Blaine Counties in Western Oklahoma. With our revised capital program,
we plan to drill or participate in 20 Woodford
shale wells in '09.
- Cimarex Energy XEC - Cimarex ( XEC ) today announced the expansion of its Woodford Shale position in the Anadarko Basin of western Oklahoma.
Cimarex has entered into an agreement with Chesapeake Energy (CHK) to acquire 38,000 net acres for $180 million.The acreage
is located in Blaine and Canadian counties Oklahoma, with 88% held by production and an average net revenue interest of 84%.
After completing this transaction Cimarex will have 88,000 net Anadarko-Woodford acres
- Marathon Oil MRO - Marathon holds approximately 30,000 net acres in the expanding Woodford Shale resource play with approximately 10,000 of
those net acres in the immediate Brickyard prospect area. The Company is currently drilling two additional company-operated
wells and is participating in two non-operated wells in the Brickyard prospect. Marathon also plans to participate in 15 to
25 gross wells in this area through 2010 with an anticipated 50 percent overall working interest.
- Newfield Exploration NFX - Newfield NFX is greatly involved in the Woodford Shale Natural Gas Field - Woodford Shale Update - Newfield recently released
an operated rig in the Woodford and now has 11 operated rigs under term contract in the field, with six of the remaining rigs
rolling off of term contract in 2009. The timing of rig contract expirations and the fact that more than 90% of the Company's
165,000 net acres now held-by-production provide Newfield with operational flexibility in the second half of 2009. Due to
the recent weakness in natural gas prices and a continued decline in service costs, Newfield has been intentionally slowing
its pace of new well completions. Gross operated production in the Woodford is approximately 240 MMcfe/d. The average lateral
length in 2009 is expected to be more than 5,000' in length.
Continental Resources CLR - CLR is active in the Woodford Shale - the Anadarko Woodford shale of western Oklahoma, Continental is currently
completing two test wells, the Brown 1-2H (100% WI) in Dewey County. and the McCalla 1-11H (90% WI) in Grady County.
In Ellis County, OK, the Company completed its initial test well in the Atoka shale play, the Shrewder 1-22H (100%
WI), which flowed at 1.3 MMcfpd from a short, 1,300-foot lateral. The Jones-Trust 1-168H (100% WI), completed in Lipscomb
Co., TX in the western part of the play, flowed at 700 Mcf per day in its initial production period test.
2009 Latest Update: Production in the Arkoma Woodford shale play was 4,799 Boepd in the first quarter of 2009, accounting
for 13 percent of Continental's total production. The Arkoma production volume was 153 percent higher than that for the
first quarter of 2008 and 47 percent higher than fourth quarter 2008 production. The Company participated in 27 gross wells
(4.4 net) during the first quarter of 2009. Continental currently has one operated rig in the Arkoma and one operated rig
drilling in the Anadarko Woodford.
Evolution Petroleum EPM - EPM is active in the Woodford Shale - We began actively acquiring leases in these two projects in May
2007. At September 30, 2008, we had acquired approximately 18,000 net acres across the two projects. The northern
project targets the Woodford Shale at a depth of approximately 1500’ and has been offset by more than 50 wells drilled
to the Woodford by another operator. The southern project targets the Woodford Shale at depths from 4000’ to 5000’
and has been offset by at least one producing Woodford Shale well at an initial rate of approximately 1 MMCFD.
Unit Corp - UNT - Unit is active in the woodford shale but as natural gas prices continue to fall, they are not planning on drilling any
more wells in 2009. ( from seekingalpha ) - the Woodford
we drilled two horizontal wells out there that we have operated, the first well is online still, has been now for probably
four or five months. We just putting it on gas worth, we have not recovered all the load back at this point but the well is
making between 400 Mcf and 500 Mcf per day. When it stays unloaded, it will make as much as a million a day. So we are still
in the evaluating stage of that. The second well we drilled was a little bit deeper, horizontal Woodford well, we have one stage fraced [ph] here in the last two or three weeks and
we have two stages left to frac. So we will have something to report on that. And then for 2009, we are not planning to drill
any Woodford wells at this time.
