Posted on 04/17/2014 2:57:59 PM PDT by ckilmer
Is This Oil Field the Next Bakken?
By Robert Baillieul - April 17, 2014
Over the past few years a handful of energy companies have been silently buying massive tracts of land in a little known area of Louisiana.
Early estimates suggest that this oil rich region could contain 7 billion barrels of recoverable oil… putting it on par with other prolific shale fields like the North Dakota Bakken and the Texas Eagle Ford.
And their bets are starting to pay off. Many of the area’s big oil producers have reported spectacular numbers from their drilling operations. And this could be just the beginning.
Is this North America’s next big shale play?
Shale drilling has been a game changer for the U.S. energy industry. Rapid production growth from a number of nearby fields have already handsomely rewarded investors. But there’s another play that’s catching the attention of oil explorers — the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Tuscaloosa has been referred to as the Eagle Ford of Louisiana, and it’s not hard to see why. According to a 1997 study by Louisiana State University’s Basin Research Institute, the Tuscaloosa measures 3.7 million acres in size — larger than the state of Connecticut. And the field is considered to be the source rock for the Lower Tuscaloosa Sandstone and the Austin Chalk formations that have been producing oil for decades.
Over the past few years a number of energy producers have been buying as many acres as they can get their hands on.
Early drilling results from Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE: GDP), which owns about 300,000 acres in the play, have been remarkable. Earlier this week the company reported that its Blades 33H-1 well achieved a peak 24-hour initial production rate of 1,270 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or boepd. Even better is the fact that 98% of this production was oil. That’s exactly what you want to see with today’s low natural gas prices.
To put these numbers in perspective, a well is considered a true ‘gusher’ if initial production rates exceed 1,000 barrels per day. So the numbers coming out of Goodrich’s Tuscaloosa acreage is truly spectacular.
Encana (TSX: ECA)(NYSE: ECA) is also betting big on the Tuscaloosa. Earlier this year the company highlighted the field as one of its five focus plays and has budgeted about $300 million to develop its acreage. The fact that Encana, which has a diverse portfolio of assets, is willing to go so aggressively after the region is a strong endorsement.
Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN) also likes what it sees in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. First-month initial production targets are between 1,000 boepd and 1,200 boepd and more than 90% of that production is oil. And the region’s favourable regulatory environment and established infrastructure has also put the play high on the company’s priority list.
Foolish bottom line
Almost every company operating out of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale is reporting blowout numbers. And the three operators I mentioned here are going all-in, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their acreage. While fields like the Bakken and the Eagle Ford steal all of the headlines, the Tuscaloosa is definitely a hidden play for investors to keep an eye on.
“The Soil Erosion Service recommended the use of kudzu to help control erosion of slopes which led to the government-aided distribution of 85 million seedlings and government-funded plantings of kudzu which paid $19.75 per hectare.”
Soon thereafter, the government changed the name of the Soil Erosion Service to the Bureau of Land Management. /s
I can verify those production rates, Centerpoint Field Services is there, they bought a small gathering field from Mark West with the hopes of laying lines to each oil well and gathering their flare gas which runs about 1800 BTU’s. Installing a Cryo and stripping the rich gas. So far as the article said there is very little gas, about 35 thousand cubic feet per well after producing for a while. The oil rates are holding up very well also
It’s there, they just haven’t looked in the right places.
Just a pipeline away from you.
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The worldwide demand for oil is great and rising. only the USA is currently doing production grade horizontal drilling and fracking.
I used to have second thoughts about that pipeline. Like maybe wouldn’t it be better to refine the oil in alberta and then ship it over to vancouver for points east where the demand is rising fast,
but if relations between europe and russia continue to sour then there will be demand from both the east and west.
USA oil production is going to snap into high gear when the permain basin gets going.
It hasn’t yet.
in any case, extracting oil from oil sands looks more expensive than fracking—after fracking has had a couple years to refine its procedures. I’ve seen fracking ranges from $90@ barrel on down to $60@barrel.
very interesting. thanks for the note.
It costs about $35/bbl to extract oil from the oil sands.
There’s a common misconception that all oil-sands oil is mined — using open-pit mining with giant shovels and trucks. In fact, that only accounts for about 15% of production. Most of the oil is extracted by drilling and pumping — just about like conventional oil. The difference is that the bitumen needs to be heated — most often using steam, heated by natural gas. New technologies, such as electric resistance heating, might reduce costs further.
As cheaper extraction technologies are developed, the reserves will increase — perhaps surpassing Saudi Arabia. It’s well known that there is a lot more bitumen there — it’s a matter of making it more economic.
It costs about $35/bbl to extract oil from the oil sands.
‘’’’’’’’
Wow.
Somewhere out there the price of oil will bust. Not in the next 5-6 years. But sometime after 2020 imho. (for reasons that include rising overseas production as other countries learn to frack. And falling demand as natural gas trucks and buses and electric cars take a bite out of demand—but the latter is probably a decade off. That said I think it will happen.)
The oil sands will survive.
Fracked well have a very very long tail. The long tail costs are in the $40@barrel range.
“demand for oil is going to go down as electric cars and natural gas vehicles gain traction.”
Under no condition would I have one of those pieces of crap!!
even my prius driving leftist friends rock my diesel.
Pelican Brief
“demand for oil is going to go down as electric cars and natural gas vehicles gain traction.”
Under no condition would I have one of those pieces of crap!!
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I’m sure you’re right. The problem is that Consumer Reports gave Tesla their highest car ratings in history.
People notice that sort of thing.
So while its too expensive for anyone but the rich right now. If it comes down in price to 35K as promised in 2016-17
—sales volumes are likely to go up. Tesla is planning on selling 500k vehicles annually by 2020. That’s up from 22k in 2013 and projected 45k in 2014. They’re currently over booked.
Pelican Brief
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I’m not getting this. Please elaborate.
the movie was about a brief by Darby Shaw about a powerful LA oilman that assassinated two SCOTUS Justices because they were going to apply endangered species crap on his oil drilling leases. I just thot that in spite of the finding of oil, our current government will try to make sure it doesn’t get out. the assassination of two judges would be as they might say a start.
Oh I see. Well all the big oil fields are on private lands. The ones in louisiana are as well. The feds can’t really stop them. Not sure they want to. New oil money brought in 100 billion to federal coffers last year. Those numbers will only increase if the feds let them continue to drill.
That’s a powerful incentive to leave the drillers alone as long as they’re on private lands.
I should clarify that there’s also the matter of royalties to the government — those vary, according to the world price of oil — I think they’re about $40/bbl now. Then there’s transportation costs. Still, even when everything’s factored in, I can’t disagree with what you’re saying.
Gnats? Bodycology Toasted Vanilla lotion. INSTANT gnat eliminator. You’ll smell like a sugar cookie but anything beats gnat swarms and they sell it at Walmart.
The roots can be ground into gluten free flour.
Great....we have plenty of it in SC and NC so help yourself. I see fields and fields of it just destroying buildings and property; and trying to clean it up means digging up the roots basically with heavy equipment...so very expensive to get rid of it.
8^)
5.56mm
Thanks but no thanks. We have more than we can handle as it is. That's why I searched to see if it was good for anything. That's when I found out people are using the roots to bake goods. I was quite surprised.
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