Cheryl, actually there are 5 wells into your section. One of the wellheads is located on your section and the other 4 are located on the section south of yours.
Don thanks for the information. On the permit for the Standridge 1-32H it states it is limited to the formations of Caney, Mississippi Lime, Woodford, Hunton with the vertical lateral running at the starting depth of the Hunton. Does this mean they are basically looking at the Woodford for the production or can they get production out of all of these formations? FYI since you have been studying the activity in Grady County and Stephens, they have finished drilling Michaels and my sites. They moved the rig from Michaels and should start fracking soon according to information he received from a forum responder who talked to the driller. I went on a trip South and they were stacking my rig on the site, too far away to get a good view from the turnpike so I am just hoping everything went well and just waiting to frack. May try to call Continental at first of week and try to get an update if possible. With all the new applications for sites and pooling according to Michael things are really heating up in Grady and Northern Stephens Counties.
Thanks Don.
They can get the production from all the formations. They may have a special geological circumstance that they think all the listed formations would produce. It happens. Those formations produce in other parts of the Anadarko Basin. The closest one I am familiar with is the Mississippian Springer sand just east of Chickasha and trending NW-SE. I think there is some Mississippi Lime also in Grady. These would be vertical wells.
Richard, if you have handy could you post what production tests you know of in Township 7N, Range 6W. I have five wells either completed or drilling in the township. Sections 11, 17, 27, 29, and 36. I am unaware of any others either working or permitted.
Francis-Not sure how Devon “purchased 4 formations.” A given lease covers all formations under it unless there is a depth limitation spelled out in the lease meaning that the leasing company has no rights below a specific depth. It can also include shallower depths if there are formations already producing from wells at the shallower depth.
A horizontal well generally is extending its lateral along a specific formation. The thicker the formation the better an operator can keep the well bore where he wants it. The Woodford shale varies across the trend now being played from NE to SW from about 100 feet to about 300 feet thick. It thickens as it dives deeper into the Anadarko Basin until it reaches, probably over 20,000 feet deep, to just in front of the roots of the Wichita Mountains in SW Oklahoma. The hot part of the play in what is called the “Core” is about 12,000 to 13,000 feet and is in the thickness range as stated above.
I am not aware (but am no expert in this play) of an operator crossing formation boundary line in a vertical direction and then turning the bit to drill horizontally along a different formation above or below the initial formation drilled.
Nine wells per unit. I wonder if that is a 640-acre unit or the expanded 1280 units. At any rate, these wells will drain a limited amount of the shale. The amount they drain is a function of how well and how far the frac penetrated the shale and broke it up. That is why the initial rates are so good and then fall off rapidly after the first year of production. Royalty owners should prepare themselves for this fact. It will happen and those large first checks will start to decrease and decrease rapidly over the first three years or so and then level out for some years after that.
Depending on the operator and the price of oil and gas infill drilling in a unit can happen quickly or slowly. Operators in adjacent units may proceed at different rates to complete the infill drilling. Because of the physical characteristics of the shale only a limited amount of it will be affected by the fracturing done to it. But if an operator thinks he needs 9 wells to drain a section, he is only thinking that an individual well bore is pulling from no more than about 330 feet from each side of the bore hole along its lateral extent.
For those royalty owners that see nine wells being drilled in the section next to where their ownership is and fear that product under their section will be drained by the wells next door, that is an unlikely case. The shale is very tightly bound and migration laterally would be extremely slow at best.
In my own opinion development rates will be determined by the water available and Devon’s large pond may be what will have to happen across the entire play.
I do not mean to introduce this forum to Geology 101 and fracturing and completion efforts. But people on this forum may have limited information about how things really work in these areas and misinformation abounds and sometimes it is not in the best interest of the individual royalty owner.
Do your homework as best you can.
Don, here are what I have from my notes. McCalla 1-11H, 24 bpd oil on 2-09; this is the well Continental supposedly had problems with. Ballard 1-17H, 212 bopd, 869 thousand ft per day. Dana 1-29H, 87 BOPD and 2.5 million ft per day. No reports yet on the IGO 1H in 27 and the Pyle in 36 which is vertical. These are all Continentals but Western has some deep verticals in the area probably on the map that Brian supplied us in the Grady County forum.
Al Gore is his own special interest group and he sees to it that the money keeps rolling into it so he may jet around the world (don’t jets pollute and use up vast amounts of that evil petroleum product?) to keep the money rolling in.
If I remember what little contract law I was exposed to, money or value needs to change hands to make it a binding contract. If whatever was bad that Chesapeake’s shell operations were paying with, there is no contract. No contract (lease), stay off my land with your drilling rig.
What is going on with a company like Chesapeake or others like it should serve as a warning not only to potential leasing contracts but the selling of mineral interests outright. I think there will be a lot more of that in the coming months as the Woodford shale play extends across the state.
Jerry, I am not sure about producing close to you, but overall Blaine County is a very hot and active area. In fact, Continental and Devon are drilling in Sections 17 and 25 of Township 16N, Range 13W. I hope you will keep your minerals, DO NOT SELL! Check the Blaine County forum for discussions on what is going on in the county.
Thanks Larry I figured that would be your answer. It seems to take them 2 years to file a completion report. I think I will email a complaint to the OCC and see what type of response I get. I made a complaint on some royalties being held under suspense that we had proved belong to us as heirs and the oil company was holding on to. About a week after the complaint and the OCC calling the oil company we received a check. It would help the royalty owner to know what is happening around him so he can make right decisions about leases etc.
I hope I may call you Michael? Michael, I’m not here to defend Kevin; his content that he posts is solely his problem, as mine is mine. I do think that it is best to be a wary, greedy mineral owner and protect yourself. I have friends whose only offer came from Chesapeake. It turned out okay in the end, but not without a lot of worry and aggravation, and way more time than it should have taken to get paid.
With such a hue and cry about Chesapeake’s actions, I’m just saying that you should not let them have your executed lease until you have a check, and if you bargain for a royalty free of post-production costs, get a lawyer’s help to make sure that is what you get. I have lived near wells and haven’t had a water problem from fracking, but I have had water quality problems from farmers’ chemical fertilizer runoff from their fields into the drinking water supply. Maybe the farmers should be forced to stop farming?
Michael, you couldn’t offend me by any comment you made about Al Gore. I think he is just a tool of a special interest group. Michael, sometimes my humor doesn’t come through also; when that’s the case, I sometimes sit back and tell myself, “Wow, tough crowd.”
Don, good points all. Unfortunately, the courts have determined that the mere chance of future royalty is enough consideration to perpetuate a lease, so if you give anyone an executed lease and they record it, they do not have to pay you money until you sue them. Also, they may try to use your recorded lease as an unpaid option, for while they recorded your lease they could say the recording was in error and they intended to release it of record. The sticky point is value could rise, a well could even be drilled, and they could claim that the deal was sealed by the recording, with the consideration being the chance of future royalty. Basically, the lessor has bound your interests and has the option to pick it up at a later date, at will, until they voluntarily release your lease or you bite the bullet and sue them. The bottom line is to not let the executed lease out of your hand until you have a check or other instrument that gives you recourse, not a draft, order of payment, or bill of exchange of the type that landmen usually tender as payment. Much better to be safe than sorry.
Don, FYI about discussion we had yesterday about Continental’s drilling in Township 7N, Range 6W. They have a current intent to drill in Section 32, Township 7N, Range 5W, Simms 1-32H.
Don I also forgot Continental is pooling in Sections 13 and 24 in Township 7N-Range 6W.
Thanks Richard
Kevin - Would you care to make a few comments about your experiences with “crooked”, as you style it, companies that have wronged you? You have an audience here and I am sure they will be interested in what you have to relate.
I have mineral royalties in Blaine County leased to Continental (14-16N-13W and 11-16N-13) and have received several offers to purchase royalties. Does anyone know if there are any producing wells in the area?
Jerry, I have royalty in Section One, Township 16N, Range 14W, Dewey County. This section is just west of the Blaine County line. CR completed a well and started producing on July 2. First tests were 156 bopd and 2.1 million cfpd of gas. This should be close to you. We have not received a check yet, but they have told me we should get division papers soon. The section just north of it has a producing well that was completed in February last year, the Irwin well. Our well is the Trook well. You can find mention of it on the CR website under the May 2011 quarterly report. My advice would be to hold on to your rights. Larry
Thanks for the info. I will hold on to the minerals.
Larry how did you first learn what your well was producing. Myself and Michael H. here on the forum currently have Continental rigging down on our wells, one in Grady and one in Stephens County. Any way we can check on progress? It seems like over the last year or so to find out about Continental’s production is to wait on their quarterly reports and hope they mention your well.