Goodrich reports another well, improves drilling time

Goodrich Petroleum Corp. said its latest Tuscaloosa Marine Shale well, the Nunnery 12-1H-1 in Amite County, Mississippi, initially produced the equivalent of 815 barrels of oil per day.

The company is one of the biggest players in the formation, with more than 300,000 acres under lease and a $300 million drilling budget. The Tuscaloosa stretches from Texas across the middle of Louisiana into Mississippi and may contain 9 billion barrels of oil.

Goodrich also said it has completed frac operations on its Beech Grove 94H-1 well in East Feliciana Parish and expects to report initial production by the end of June. Fracturing involves forcing millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to crack the rock and release the oil.

In addition, the company has completed drilling operations on the SLC Inc. 81H-1 well in West Feliciana Parish and plans to begin frac operations in early July. Goodrich has also finished drilling its Denkmann 33-28H-2 well in Amite County in a record 25 days.

Faster drilling times are important because it costs roughly $100,000 per day to lease a drilling rig. Some earlier wells in the formation have taken weeks longer to drill.

Goodrich is running three rigs in the Tuscaloosa, with plans to go to as many as five rigs by the end of the year.