Stacked pay (play?)

"“On the completion side, we are in the process of completing our “stacked pay” Stalder pad, which incorporates two Marcellus Condensate wells and three Utica Dry Gas wells. We expect that this pad will begin to turn to sales in January 2018 and anticipate that it will provide the Company with the data needed to further validate our condensate rich Marcellus play footprint in eastern Ohio."

I lifted this from an Eclipse presentation of their company's operations.

What are they talking about ? Are they drilling and producing from two separate formations in the same unit as it would seem logical ? Looking at the available mapping of the Utica and Marcellus plays there appears to be some overlapping and anyone with acreage in that area would be excited about the possibility of receiving royalties from two plays instead of one.

Anyone have better information than my possible wishful thinking ?

Views: 2518

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sam Moore on June 26, 2018 at 1:53am
Yes they are drilling both from the same pad.
Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on June 26, 2018 at 2:18am

I would think this would be great news for landowners who have retained their mineral rights. Thank you for the response.

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on June 26, 2018 at 2:19am

This would appear to be great news for those of us who have steadfastly retained our mineral rights, thank you for the response.

Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Beunier on June 27, 2018 at 4:53pm

Flat Castle is in Northern PA and nowhere close to where David is discussing.  Marcellus in Monroe County is 50-75' thick along the river.  It pinches out rather quickly as you move west.  Furthermore, it is more shallow than PA and is less thermally mature in Ohio than in most places in PA.

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on June 27, 2018 at 1:02am

David - 'your assumption seems correct to me- The operator will drill enough wells/laterals from one pad to simultaneously exploit and produce multiple zones. This is a technique often used to maximize the economics of a play. In other instances, a deeper zone is produced and depleted then plugged back, followed by developing a productive zone higher in the parent wellbore (the more vertical section).

Brian

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on June 27, 2018 at 1:59am

This would appear to be very good news for landowners with mineral rights. Thank you for the response.

Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Beunier on June 27, 2018 at 4:55pm

Marcellus is not developed vertically.  Horizontals are drilled in each individual formation.  An additional issue is that the Marcellus along the river is a wet gas, and the Utica is a dry gas - takes different gathering systems.  However, you are correct that both formations can be developed off the same pad, as EQT and CNX demonstrated in PA

Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Beunier on June 27, 2018 at 4:50pm

Marcellus economics are limited through most of Ohio - look at the isopach maps available through the Ohio Geological survey and you will see that only a limited portion of Monroe County has Marcellus with enough thickness to be economical.

http://geosurvey.ohiodnr.gov/portals/geosurvey/energy/Marcellus_Uti...

you can find similar information in Eclipse Resources presentations on their investor relations tab:

http://ir.eclipseresources.com/sites/eclipseresources.investorhq.bu...

http://ir.eclipseresources.com/sites/eclipseresources.investorhq.bu...

This has been well known for many years as Magnum Hunter amongst others tested and produced the Marcellus in Eastern Monroe.

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on July 6, 2018 at 2:02am

As has been pointed out this scenario is occurring in Monroe county Ohio. I have seen the explanation that the Marcellus is not sufficient to produce moving out from this limited area, which is fine.

I will say though that things in this industry change quickly and things once thought are often wrong or incomplete as the technology moves forward and the drilling practices are refined. 

Maybe some day this practice, which is a bonus for landowners fortunate to be in the right place, will be more commonplace if the formations are found to be a little different than what is believed today. If I were a leaseholder I wouldn't necessarily want this information out.

I remember a few years back when a company did seismic testing for the second time in the exact same areas around our Millwood township property. I was curious why they would re-test an area already being drilled and wondered if they found something down there of interest to them for future development. 

You can't argue with the rocks though, if they aren't there they aren't there.

Permalink Reply by Blueflame_02 on July 6, 2018 at 2:43am

I think the economics are the most challenging portion of the Marcellus in Ohio. It's much shallower in Monroe County than Greene/Washington PA - if natural gas prices ever get back to $4-5/Mcf these could become more economic but will never compete with the core area. Similar to how Anadarko drilled those first Utica wells in western Guernsey and completely messed up. Better oil prices and liquids market probably make that a target again for a company like Artex Oil but it will never compete with Eclipse economics in eastern Guernsey.

Permalink Reply by David Allen Lilly on July 6, 2018 at 5:21am

I received last week an offer to buy our minerals in Millwood township Guernsey County (30 acres)  for $420,000. I wonder what is going on, if there is something coming that would make someone pay that amount ?

The offers had our parcel numbers and acreage on the letters.

Permalink Reply by Blueflame_02 on July 6, 2018 at 5:26am

Millwood is right in the heart of Eclipse Resource's target area in Guernsey County - as well as Ascent. $14K per mineral acre to sell doesn't seem surprising. Eclipse has had great success in the condensate rich Utica.

RSS

© 2024   Created by Keith Mauck (Site Publisher).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service