Merry Christmas all,
Does anyone know of or heard of any wolfberry plays attempted in Dawson County?
Thanks!
Just lots of rumors and speculation. The same is true for Lynn and terry county. If oil goes over a 100 dollars a barrel I have heard things will pick up again.
Thanks Ralph,
I suppose I should qualify my question a bit. By "wolfberry play" I was referring to horizontally drilling the spraberry and wolfcamp.
Earnest just to let you know I have read several articles that mention some test drilling going to take place in the northeast of Dawson county in the near future. Word is it is hard to get the horizontal rigs to move out of hot areas but I keep my fingers crossed.
Pioneer Natural Resources Investors Presentation PXD_2013_01-01
Earnest and Ralph,
Merry Christmas!!! This presentation has a lot of great information - Slide 35 with the projections of 55 wells per 960-Acres (@20-Acre Down-spacing) - with fourteen horizontal wells included - in the Spraberry Formation (Two Wolfcamp benches only) a/k/a Wolfberry, just about made my eyes pop out of my head! Since Dawson County has a large footprint in the Spraberry - this should certainly be relevant to our issues of concern in my view.
Joy,
Ralpr
Ralpr and Ralph,
Having just signed a lease a few months back for some land in Dawson this information makes me wish I had waited a tad bit longer! I'm sure land values are fixing to go on that upward climb i.e. Midland, Martin etc. As for the $100 per barrel mark....Does anyone know an average estimate for drilling costs for Dawson? I know that some counties are economic even as low as $70 per barrel.
As far as the economics go, what with new pipelines being completed, the looming situation in the Middle East (Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran.....something is going to pop this year) and forecasts for greater demand for the foreseeable future (EIA predictions)....I don't see oil dropping down much below $94.
What depth is the wolfberry shale located? The property my family holds in Dawson Co. has a well that was drilled to a depth of 11k feet, and the horizontal drilling should be compete either this week or the next.
Emily,
Great question. That is a hard question to ask, the most accurate way to know for sure it to examine the well boring log or well log. But Slide 10 in the above hyperlink will be compelling for you and your family, I'm sure. The middle column provides some general depths of the target formations in the Southern Midland Basin. Congratulations on the well going in - I hope it is a Monster well!
Regards,
Ralpr
Thanks for all the information Ralpr!
Emily, I believe what is referred to as the "wolfberry" is a combination of the wolfcamp shale and the spraberry. From my reading the Spraberry is long been known as the "ole faithful". Drill it and you'll hit oil (not always alot though). They drill the wolfcamp to supplement and increase the bbls achievable. By the way, how long did the process take from signing the lease, to them spudding the well? I know each operator differs but it would be interesting to see how quick or not they were. Congrats on the well! I hope it is a monster indeed!
Here is a great read on the history of the Spraberry formation throughout the decades..."
Hello Earnest,
It took about a year before they spud the initial well after signing the lease, which took about a month to reach 11k. Then, about a year after that, they started the horizontal drilling, which started around Dec. 11th. From what I have been told, the horizontal drilling will be complete either this week or next week. Next, they will finish out the electrical lines. If all goes well, they hope to be producing come January.
Earnest said:
Thanks for all the information Ralpr!
Emily, I believe what is referred to as the "wolfberry" is a combination of the wolfcamp shale and the spraberry. From my reading the Spraberry is long been known as the "ole faithful". Drill it and you'll hit oil (not always alot though). They drill the wolfcamp to supplement and increase the bbls achievable. By the way, how long did the process take from signing the lease, to them spudding the well? I know each operator differs but it would be interesting to see how quick or not they were. Congrats on the well! I hope it is a monster indeed!
That is great Emily! With both of our lands being drilled horizontally, in different areas of Dawson no less, then I believe Dawson county is really fixing to become the next boom town. Especially if either of us gets a gusher (fingers, toes and eyes crossed!). I know I saw one company drew up plans for the south west area of Dawson. IIRC Glass Hutch project?
Ralpr,
I noticed that about Pioneer planning to space so many horizontals per section. I've seen some other companies are planning similar techniques.
Earnest I'm curious as to where your interest is located. We have interest on two properties in Dawson Co. that our grandparents bought back in the 1920's, one at Munger about 8 miles NW of Lamesa and one about 3 miles NE of town just off the Lubbock HWY. Neither is leased at present. I have a first cousin who is in this dogfight as well and she also owns minerals from the other side of her family, one at Midway and another 3 miles just east of town and neither of these places are under lease. Her three year lease at Midway just expired but the operator did nor exercise the two year option. Our Munger place had three good Penn Reef oil wells that were drilled in the late 1950's but were plugged in 2003 and my cousin had Sprayberry wells on her Midway place and they were also plugged several years ago. Maybe all the operators think these areas were sucked dry. From TTRC I see most drilling activity is in SW, SE, and a little in far NE Dawson Co. So I would appreciate and news from you and others about leasing activity close to my stuff. Thanks, John.
Hello John,
My property that is leased is located on the South half of Labor 6, League 272; however, they are using parts of other labors, as well.
Thanks Emily, isn't that south west of Lamesa? We are in Lamesa once or twice a year as my Wife also has family there and I have met a few old codgers like myself at McDonalds who got leases NW of town but this was 3 or 4 years ago. Also I have met and had lunch with Kool Kotton, he lives in Palestine and I live in Jacksonville, about 35 miles, and he got a lease a few years ago west of our interest near the old Munger school. You may remember that I posted some comments over a year ago about the 3 Peen Reef wells drilled on our grandparents land . Two of these wells were plugged in 2003 but the #3 well produced through 2003 (2800 barrels) but was shut down for maintenance in Jan 2004 and then kept in "inventory" for 5 years with out any effort by the operator to get it back in production. So I then filed a complaint with TTRC against the operator and after two letters from TTRC to the operator, they were ordered to plug and abandon which was done in Oct 2004. I have been in contact with only one operator who has re-entered some wells in this area but they were reluctant to re-enter this well since the previous operator was forced to plug. Probably concerned about scrap iron in the hole which would be bad for a new expensive drill bit to encounter.
It is in Lamesa. The company who leased the property, actually, drilled a new well on site Dec. 2012 - Jan. 2013. Now, they are taking the well horizontal. From what I understand, they are finished and working on some maintenance aspects to make it production ready. We are all keeping our fingers crossed at this point. So far, early preliminary results seem good; however, in this line business...that can all change with a drop of a hat.
My acreage is just in the southern part of Dawson county. Other than hearing from the landsman that the O&G company has intents on horizontal drilling, I have not heard much else. Signed the lease and paid this December but while it is still early the landsman did say they were "exploring the area". Which most probably means seismic and magnetic I suppose. John, I have noticed that several of the new permits for NE part of Dawson were for re-entry of plugged or dry hole wells.
My take on it is that as long as oil remains in the $95 dollar area that exploration should continue. I'm sure that the estimates of 50Bbbls of equivalent are overly optimistic but even at half that, it would be a massive expanse. There are only a finite number of economically producible fields and the game afoot now is to amass good acreage as cheaply as possible. That which is considered unrecoverable now may not be in a few years.
I would love it if someone deeply familiar with the industry (przzz seems to be such a one) could give us some insight into the thoughts swirling around the boardrooms of the O&G companies. It would be very beneficial to mineral owners, would it not?
Emily Rose & Earnest,
Congratulations on the horizontal wells in Dawson County. Its good to see activity moving north. I've been following this area because my wife owns unleased minerals in southeast Gaines County. Keep us posted on the progress and good luck!
Hello PhilTX,
Some of the property owned (and under lease) runs between both Dawson Co. and Gaines Co.