I am reading some old paperwork,from the early 1900s, on the mineral rights that we own and it says that the well was dry on one tract. Can that change over time to being a producing well? I am trying to understand how this works.
Sometimes old wells can be re-entered, usually not that old because of reasons of integrity. Wells that are re-entered can be recompleted in the original producing formation, drilled deeper to a new formation, plugged back and completed in a shallower formation. Having a dry well from many years ago does not necessarily mean there is not oil or gas, but some areas have no oil or gas. I have successful wells in a section where up to 7 dry or modestly producing wells were drilled that eventually went dry 30 to 50 years ago. If there is other production not too far from your old well, a new well might find something to produce in paying quantities.
Thank you
r w kennedy said:
Sometimes old wells can be re-entered, usually not that old because of reasons of integrity. Wells that are re-entered can be recompleted in the original producing formation, drilled deeper to a new formation, plugged back and completed in a shallower formation. Having a dry well from many years ago does not necessarily mean there is not oil or gas, but some areas have no oil or gas. I have successful wells in a section where up to 7 dry or modestly producing wells were drilled that eventually went dry 30 to 50 years ago. If there is other production not too far from your old well, a new well might find something to produce in paying quantities.
Cassie,
Here in Oklahoma, I have several good wells on former dry hole locations. The producing formation and/or the technology was initially unknown.
Tom
"Dry hole" doesn't necessarily mean there was NO oil & gas. It is better defined as meaning there are not commercial quantities of oil and gas produced or put another way, the costs to produce are more than the revenue that can be realized from production.
I'd say having a dry hole 100 years ago doesn't mean much unless it was drilled really deep and the area is known to not produce hydrocarbons.
What state are your minerals in?
RT, Cassie has minerals in Ohio.
Cassie, I also forgot to mention that wells have been plugged when the price of oil was $20 or less and there was no infrastructure to move it after it was produced and or no place to get rid of the salt water produced with the hydrocarbons. These same wells drilled today could be money makers, or they would produce and sell as much as was feasable to get as much of their money back as possible so it wasn't a total loss. It's possible for an operator to be right at the wrong time. A gas well drilled when dry gas was selling for $10 per mcf (thousand cubic foot) could be very profitable but if the price falls to $2.50 per mcf, it might have been a great well but at the wrong time.
Thank you!
r w kennedy said:
RT, Cassie has minerals in Ohio.
Cassie, I also forgot to mention that wells have been plugged when the price of oil was $20 or less and there was no infrastructure to move it after it was produced and or no place to get rid of the salt water produced with the hydrocarbons. These same wells drilled today could be money makers, or they would produce and sell as much as was feasable to get as much of their money back as possible so it wasn't a total loss. It's possible for an operator to be right at the wrong time. A gas well drilled when dry gas was selling for $10 per mcf (thousand cubic foot) could be very profitable but if the price falls to $2.50 per mcf, it might have been a great well but at the wrong time.
Hi Cassie I don't know where your minerals are but in Texas and Louisiana it seems the new action is coming from the old fields.
Ohio
Craig Wascom said:
Hi Cassie I don't know where your minerals are but in Texas and Louisiana it seems the new action is coming from the old fields.
Bacteria eat coal [oil to I think] and turn it into gas. So over 100yrs they could produce a lot of flatulence I imagine
Wells were often "dry holed" for lack of transportation or market price. Pay no attention to it.
That is funny, and thank you!
Paul Ramsey said:
Bacteria eat coal [oil to I think] and turn it into gas. So over 100yrs they could produce a lot of flatulence I imagine
Thank you
T L Shields said:
Wells were often "dry holed" for lack of transportation or market price. Pay no attention to it.
I have a mineral interest in Liberty County TX where a well was drilled last year. It was reported as "dry"
but actually produced several hundred barrels of oil. After calling the production co. about it, I got a
check for $43.00. Whee! Anyway, it pays to check with both the producer and the TX-RRC website.
It's true, bacteria eat coal. Man they must have good teeth!
Earth is constantly changing, bacteria are just one reason, earthquakes, table slides, underground water tables and drains, volcanic activity, are only a few of the examples, and it is changing much more rapidly than geololigists have thought. Greenland, for example, is actually turning green with new plant life that has not been seen for thousands and thousands of years. It has been said "God isnot making new oil or gas..." when actually new gas is being made at a comparitively rapid pace all of the time. I do not know about oil, may take a lot longer? We might be the new oil in a couple million of years or so.