We are new at this so just a question... Has anyone heard of Shell wanting to sign up leases in Chattam twp. before the original lease is up? We have been approached by a landman and they seem anxious to sign us up.  Just want to be educated.

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Are you alright, Tim? I mean mentally. You don't seem to understand how to debate an issue rationally any better than you comprehend the gas business. You appear to think that by posting things on this forum you can make the future go the way you want, but the world doesn't work that way. We've had some bad news recently on prices, industry activity and even some uninspiring production test data that may not become public for a while. And that all impacts the likely future path of the play's development.  

I like the dry Utica play - it's the most promising thing that Tioga and Potter Counties have going for them, and most likely their last chance to prove they can support new drilling economically. But your claims that you know what Shell has found and what they're going to do next goes well beyond my ability to stay on top of industry developments in this area. Shell is a very hard company to learn much about - I have no connections there who would ever give me the sort of information you're claiming to have. And I very much doubt you have any access to confidential information there either.

The magnitude of your psychological problem is beyond my ability to counter. I'm just glad that you aren't a player and that when I close this window I don't have to deal with you again unless I visit this forum. Life is too short to waste time on irrational losers. Especially angry ones.

 Ben and JoAnn could you give the name of the land man or lady.Some people have had offers in that area and the land man agreed to terms and never came back with a lease.When the people inquired to Shell they said the landman was sent to a new area to work in.

 Jack just a thought do you think there is any chance Sabinsville storage field is leaching into Neal and Watkins wells?

A good question, and if those were Marcellus wells right next to the storage field (perhaps in the buffer zone) gas moving between the two definitely would be possible. But with Utica wells a few miles away the odds of a problem like that would be incredibly small. Storage operators typically know the chemical composition of the gas they inject, and if they see pressures in their field drop when a new well starts producing nearby they can test the gas being produced to see if there might be communication between the two. But I've heard no rumors of any issues like that being encountered here.

You may be aware that Dominion has put the Utica rights to the Sabinsville Storage Field up for bids, so they must believe that even drilling and producing the Utica right in their field won't cause any problems. (If we were talking about the Marcellus, it would be a very different story.) Anyway, I'm quite sure that whatever the Neal and Watkins wells are producing is unrelated to the gas currently in storage at Sabinsville.

This is an exciting play to watch develop, and it wouldn't surprise me if the storage fields to the east of Shell's test wells (Meeker and Tioga) were the next to attract industry interest in deeper drilling.

 Thank You for the reply.

Do you know where the Watkins well is and when was it drilled? 

 Watkins well is up over the back hill from Neals.

They were drilled first in 2011 and 3 Utica wells just completed in December.

There are lots of rumors about the Watkins unit floating around, but no hard data yet. I've heard that all three Utica wells were completed, but one may have had completion difficulties. The production guesses that circulated when the Gee well was new were quite inaccurate so I'm nervous about accepting the Watkins rumors at face value. (Remember, the Gee well was supposedly making 25 million/day or more and the actual number that eventually got released was just a little over 8 million/day - only marginally economic even at the higher gas prices we had then.) The Neal figures people tossed around initially were also on the high side, so I think we'll need to wait until Shell releases actual production data to know what has been done at the Watkins pad and how the results there stack up.

The Miller and Baker sites each have two Utica wells permitted, and I'm optimistic that Shell will test at least one of the sites this year. The frack on Seneca's well on State Forest land in Delmar is almost complete, and my guess is that it will be tested sometime in the next month or so. If that's a good one, Seneca will get a press release out fairly quickly (that's one difference between Seneca and Shell) and we'll all know what sort of initial production the well managed. A positive report there should encourage Shell about the Delmar area. That Seneca well is a pretty important data point.

The Seneca well is a horizontal Utica well - their first well there ran into technical problems and had to be plugged, so they skidded the rig over a few feet and drilled a replacement. When the press release comes out I'll post it if I find it before anyone else!

11.2 reported by Shell, 8.0 reported by Jack. Just a 40% haircut by our resident expert to the actual number.



Shell announces Utica gas discovery in Pennsylvania
03 Sep 2014


Shell today announced new discovery wells (Neal and Gee) within the Utica formation in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, USA. These wells were drilled to a total measured depth of approximately 4,420 and 4,724 metres (14,500 and 15,500 feet) with lateral lengths of 945 metres (3,100 feet) at Gee and 1,280 metres (4,200 feet) at Neal, respectively. These results are comparable to the best publically announced thus far in the emerging Southeast Ohio Utica dry gas play.
The Gee and Neal discovery wells extend the sweet spot of the Utica formation beyond Southeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, where previous discoveries have been located, and into an area where Shell holds a major leasehold position of approximately 430,000 acres. The Gee well was drilled over 100 miles to the northeast of the nearest horizontal Utica producer, and had an initial flowback rate of 11.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Gee has been on production for nearly one year. Shell began production of the Neal well in February, with observed peak flowback rates of 26.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

“This successful discovery is the result of solid technical work in our onshore business” said Marvin Odum, Shell’s Upstream Americas Director. “Last year, we refocused our resources plays strategy to select fewer plays with specific scale and economic characteristics to best suit our portfolio. The Appalachian basin is one of those areas, and these two high-pressure wells both exhibit exceptional reservoir quality.”

Shell is currently awaiting results from four additional Utica wells drilled in Tioga County, and anticipates those wells will produce later this year.

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