I’ve seen quite a few operators drill a vertical to hijack, 500+ acres with an underperforming well that sits on top of a quality tier 2 shale pay. I have a hunch these owners signed the producers 88 lease or something like it. Penn Virginia now Baytex has some high quality wells on large acreage where they have room for 5 more horizontals yet continue to run 1 even now after 13 years. What are they waiting on?
Oil and gas is a business run for best long term results. Many operators have 1,000’s to 10,000’s of prospective drilling sites, often in multiple states. 500 acres is large to a mineral owner, but a drop in the bucket to the operator. They have to keep track of potentially expiring leased and undrilled acreage in proven areas and need to test out potential previously-unexplored areas to see whether to expand, hold or walk away. Annual drilling funds are limited and only so many wells can be drilled in a year by a company. Anyone owning or acquiring minerals needs a long-term perspective, I.e. decades, particularly as oil and gas prices fluctuate and new fields are discovered. No guarantees, we are all just along for the ride.
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Well i guess the Baytex lease folks 150 feet from EOG have a worse written lease. 1 well on the Baytex vs 41 producing with EOG and more on the way. not being snarky, just saying. and i understand what you are saying.
They didnt hijack the wells/acreage, that was the common practice when they drilled them. Way to many tin foil hats on here when it comes to thinking oil companies are omnipotent. Theyre waiting on the perfect buyout price and carried working interest to sell
yea they hijacked some of them, even in 2011 when Seitel ran an extensive 3D seismic mapping on Tier ! shale it makes operators pretty darn omnipotent. Thumper vibe trucks measuring every square inch down to 20,000 feet then they know what’s underground. Now if you are referring to yahoo wildcatters operating on luck i agree they know aren’t omnipotent and many of those caught lightning in a bottle, ie Lucas Energy.
3D seismic is not definitive. Otherwise no company would ever drill an economic or low producing horizontal well. And I have seen quite a few disappointing wells. Seismic only provides complex data that must be interpreted by geologists and engineers and they often disagree. Seismic is only one of many factors which go into drilling.
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Lots of dry holes drilled using seismic as their “guide”. It is only one of the tools in the bag that must be used.
well Seitel 3D seismic has been pretty incredibly definitive on our lease.
your bet lots of dry holes drilled on us in the beginning with explosive charges in the 1980’s, switched to 3D 35 years later and 3d done by a company who knows what they are doing and they hit pay dirt. Seitel showed me their maps. you get what you pay for.
Youre arguing with 2 of the most knowledgeable people on this board, Todd and TD, trying to prove a point that is subjective and still hard to determine what your argument is? Youre mad that you have 500 acres held by production and the current operator wont spend 50 milllion to develop in your own words, your tier 2 acreage based off what a seismic person told you and shared with you?