Haynesville Shale

Forest Oil Restarts Haynesville Shale Development

Forest Oil (FST) has reentered the Haynesville Shale and added a rig to this area.  The decision was based on the effectiveness of the restricted rate program that the company used on seven Haynesville wells in 2010. Another factor that motivated the company to deploy a rig here was a reduction in drilling and completion costs over the last year.   

Forest Oil believes that these seven wells will have an estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) that exceeds the 6.5 Bcfe curve. The company has drilled and completed its first Haynesville Shale well here and reported an initial restricted production rate of 12 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents per day.

Conference Call Comments

“We resumed the Haynesville Shale drilling program based on the success of the restricted rate program combined with decreasing completion costs. Our first well in 2011 was completed for a restricted rate of 12 million cubic feet per day with over 8,600 psi of flowing casing pressure. We increased the number of frac stages on this well to 16. The comparable well that we drilled last year has produced 2.8 Bcf and continues to produce approximately 8 million cubic feet per day over the first 240 days of production.”

“This indicates the EURs from the restricted rate well should be in the order of 8 Bcf or an increase of approximately 25% over our earlier EURs. These results yield economic wells with the rate of return greater than 20% even in today's gas price environment. Further cost reductions will be obtained through pad drilling in 2012, as we have purchased a rig walking system to use with our lantern rigs for this area.”

Source

QEP Resources Issues Haynesville Shale Update For The Third Quarter Of 2011

QEP Resources (QEP) released an update on the company’s operations in Louisiana where it is developing the Haynesville Shale. 

QEP Resources reported average net production of approximately 238 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents per day from the Haynesville Shale during the third quarter of 2011.  The company is still restricting the flow rates on Haynesville Shale wells to minimize reservoir damage and believes that this will lead to higher estimated ultimate recoveries.  Other operational details:

• Year to date 2011 gross completed well costs averaged $9.1 million, down from $9.3 million in 2010.
• Year to date spud to total depth averaged 32 days in 2011, down from 37 days in 2010.
• Completed thirteen operated Haynesville Shale wells since last operational update.
• Six operated rigs working and seven operated wells either waiting or in the process of completion.
• Participated in fourteen non operated wells in the Haynesville Shale during the third quarter of 2011 that were put onto production.
• Company has eight non operated wells that are waiting on completion.

El Paso - Haynesville Shale Non Holly Field - Operational Details

El Paso (EP) has 20,000 net acres prospective for the Haynesville Shale that are located outside of the Holly area in Louisiana.  The company disclosed the following operational and financial details on wells here.

Non Holly Overview

Haynesville Shale wells in the Non Holly area are typically drilled to a depth from 11,000 to 12,500 feet with a horizontal lateral of 4,300 to 4,600 feet. The average well costs from $8.7 million to $9.3 million and has an estimated ultimate recovery ranging from 5 to 6 Bcfe.

Non Holly wells drilled by El Paso have an initial production rate from 9 to 19 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents per day and average between 6 and 15 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents during the first thirty days of production.

El Paso estimates that wells here have an internal rate of return from 5% to 15% at prices of $4.00 per MMBtu for natural gas and $80 per barrel for oil.  Finding and development costs for Non Holly wells range between $1.80 and $2.35 per Mcfe.