Gas drillers in Pennsylvania find Upper Devonian shale also is lucrative

http://www.ohio.com/business/gas-drillers-in-pennsylvania-find-uppe...

CONSOL is the third drilling company to tap into the Upper Devonian in Pennsylvania, a move that could provide a boost to shale production and adds to the growing promise of the formation.

On Thursday, Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp. became the fourth player. It announced that it has drilled eight wells in that rock in Pennsylvania, four of which are complete. It expects to drill 22 Upper Devonian wells this year, officials said.

“It’s still very early, but we’re very excited about the potential, especially in southwestern Pennsylvania,” Matt Pitzarella of Range Resources, another energy company involved in the Upper Devonian drilling, told Energy in Depth, a pro-drilling industry group.

Specifically, CONSOL Energy drilled its well into the Burkett shale, the deepest of numerous Upper Devonian shales.

It lies above the Marcellus shale generally at a depth of 6,000 to 6,500 feet below the surface.

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Permalink Reply by Michele on July 27, 2013 at 1:28am

Does anyone know if the UD will be lucrative as well in Eastern Ohio?  We are only located three miles from the PA line in Unity township.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated:)

Permalink Reply by Busy Bee on July 27, 2013 at 3:32am
Michele here Is an article from the Beacon Journal on the subject . Hope this helps some . http://www.ohio.com/news/local/upper-devonian-shale-drilling-in-sou...
Permalink Reply by Tim Tarr on July 27, 2013 at 4:56am

I think it may be a bit shallow and thin that far north and west. That's my best guess! 

Permalink Reply by Tim Tarr on July 27, 2013 at 4:06am

a mixture of shale and sandstone layers that could become an added energy source.

Those Sandstone layers is what I have been watching for news on. Shale is the source rock for gas and oil.

 Sandstone is the main reservoir rock (Trap) potential for oil. The 3 legacy formations being Venango, Bradford and Elk groups.  The first 2 are above Rhinestreet (source?) The ELK group (Brallier in SW Pa) is below Rhinestreet but above several other Shales.  Burket (shale)/Geneseo (member) being the deepest.They overlay the Tully limestone. 

In my area they still produce oil from the Venango Sandstone from a few old wells. An interesting thing is where RRC aquired "deep" drilling rights from East Resources (now Shell). They (Shell) retained the rights to 600 feet below the base of the Venango (Fifth sandstone). Bet that is all of the Bradford group in that 600 feet.

Permalink Reply by farmgas on July 27, 2013 at 4:30am

How does the Upper Devonian look in the central portion of Pa in Clearfield, Jefferson, Indiana and Armstrong counties?   Any potential, and at what depth?

Permalink Reply by Brad Cellier on July 27, 2013 at 1:24pm

farmgas,

My property is located in Armstrong County.  I signed a lease late in 2012, and they wanted the Upper Devonian and Marcellus (and below, but I didn't lease it).  My lease is limited to "the base of the Elk formation to a depth of five hundred (500) feet below the Marcellus Shale."  They wanted the Upper Devonian strata, but were willing to give up the Utica and deeper.  So, I take from this that they believe that the Upper Devonian strata are viable at least as far east as Armstrong County.

Permalink Reply by Tim Tarr on July 28, 2013 at 3:10am

Armstrong is in the fairway of the stacked play (Pay).

1.Burket and Middlesex  2. Rhinestreet

Those are the shales (source rock), In that fairway they are talking sandstone (reservoir rock) not just the shales.

Every Marcellus well drilled in the U.D.fairway go through these formations so much lower costs involved in the testing of these layers.

Now I'll bring something new up:

Below the Marcellus shale at the top of the Lower Devonian is another Shale (Needmore); that name seems to fit : )) That shale overlies the Ridgeley (Oriskany) Sandstone. Above that shale is the Huntersville Chert formation which is Capped by the Tioga Bentonite bed. We will start to here more about this in 2-3 years. Perhaps sooner, RRC seems to be drilling Pilot holes on some pads about 500 feet below Marcellus. Now why would they do that???

Permalink Reply by Armstrong Land on July 30, 2013 at 12:41am

They would do that in order to "Tag" the Onondaga because they are drilling conservation wells to avoid dealing with uncooperative coal owners.

Permalink Reply by James E. Waldeck on July 28, 2013 at 6:08am

Shell has a rather extensive exploration program in the northern counties. (Forest, McKean, Warren and Elk). I notice that on one of their latest well permits they included the letter B. I believe this to be the Burkett. This is a rather shallow formation up here so I assume the fracks are designed to also go up into the Genesee. Their lateral is just over the Tully, which I believe they are using as a frack barrier. Shell uses the same lettering on all their permits. I believe D means upper Devonian, M Marcellus, MH Marcellus horizontal, and S Utica. On the pad where they have a permit marked B they also have a D which I believe would mean they are also going to check out the Rhinestreet. That is very thick in this region and has very favorable toc levels.

I have questions for people down in Butler, Mercer and Lawrence? I notice that Shell is continuing to permit about  6 or 7 wells on a pad. Are they in development where they drill all the wells on the pad or do they drill one or two wells and leave? That is what they are doing up here. They have about ten rather large pads and permit a number of wells on each pad. But after drilling a well they leave and go to another pad. I figure they are evaluating things as they go along and optimizing their horizontal and approach. On the pad they just permitted 6 wells (off 948 in Elk) they had a number of wells permited there last year. I cannot figure why they needed to permit again. I figure they just changed their approach on the wells. They got what appears to be a very strong well on this pad earlier this year. It was flared for 60 days with a very impressive flame. I believe it was Utica.

Permalink Reply by Oliver Perry on July 28, 2013 at 11:05am

James,

Shell is doing the same thing in Butler County as they are up in your neck of the woods. For instance with the Renick pad which I know you are familiar with. Shell has six permits, but only intends to drill two wells for now. They are clearly in exploration mode in my opinion.

Also your interpretation of Shell's well code is wrong. M is for Marcellus, D is for Utica, and S is for Burket. That is the coding they have used in Butler County and I would assume it would be true for all wells in PA. As an example I have attached the Halterlein well plats where Shell is drilling in those three formations. 

Attachments:
Permalink Reply by James E. Waldeck on July 29, 2013 at 5:28am

Oliver thank you for your response. I waited to reply until after I had a chance to read the 2nd quarter Seneca earning call report which was released on Seeking Alpha. Getting information on what is going on up here is very difficult as most of the drillers are huge or private. Seneca (NFG) is public so I was expecting to get more information.

After reading their report I am more confused than ever. Seneca says they are now getting tremendous results in the Marcellus just East of where Shell is drilling on the border of McKean and Elk counties. Up until now the Marcellus drilling results in this area have been rather disappointing. At least according to what Seneca has stated. Seneca claims they got an 8 mcf/day well in Clermont which is in McKean county just north of Elk. They say they now are much more enthused about their western pa acreage and plan to develop it. It should be noted that historically they have used the shallow wells in this area to service western NY and and NW Pa. They are even talking about a multi rig drilling program. They say they can make this gas work at $4.00 a thousand. It is wet gas so they may be interested in getting in on the Shell need for ethane.They are also continuing to drill into the Utica. Unfortunately this company is not followed by analysts who ask good questions so the report left me with a number of questions.

Thanks for the information on what Shell is doing further south. I saw the multi permitted pads and assumed they were drilling them all. Wrong assumption. I still think they are further ahead down there than up here as they appear to be doing pipeline work to the pads. I have heard they are doing that up here but I have not seen any activity in the woods.

I would say some interesting things are going on up here. As you know all these companies share their shale drilling results and approaches. This summer Hunt, Chesepeake, PGE, and Seneca permitted in the area. What they are targeting I do not know. Now I wonder if they have now figured out how to drill the Marcellus in the area. It is wet gas being on the western edge of the play. How wet I do not know. I have never seen a BTU number.

As for the Shell letters I thank you for your corrections which agree with the well plat. And I will add another letter to the mystery. What does the B stand for in this permit? LOL.

Elk

Highland Twp

 7/17/2013

 SWEPI LP

WT 3781 1401 5HB

Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on July 29, 2013 at 6:42am

James;  could you post a link to the Seeking Alpha article?  Would be very helpful.

In Lawrence Co, Shell has several pads. They have drilled three wells on each of them.  I think each are at different depths, hitting the Utica, Marcellus, and the Upper D. Not drilling any this year but they have been acquiring ROW to all their pads and on into Butler Co where they have done the same three-well pattern. Some of the ROWs extend into Beaver Co in the direction of the proposed cracker.  Its my guess that next year they will be installing pipelines and then will resume a major drilling operation. The big unknown is the cracker plant. If that is made official, it will be Katy bar the door time!

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