Tuscaloosa Marine Shale oil well sets record

08 07, 2013 by The Advocate

Goodrich Petroleum Corp.’s Encana Anderson 17-2 well has set a record in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, averaging the equivalent of 1,540 barrels of oil in a 24-hour period.

Kirk Barrell, author of the Tuscaloosa Trend blog and head of Amelia Resources LLC, said the result is significant, especially considering the Mississippi well’s 5,200-foot lateral, or horizontal section.

Goodrich apparently feels the same way. The company led its second-quarter earnings report, released Monday, with the results of wells in the Tuscaloosa, and the Anderson 17-2 led those results.

According to Barrell, the Anderson 17-2 is the latest well to meet four criteria for success. Those include a lateral longer than 5,000 feet; landing the well in the bottom 70 feet of the formation; using 400,000 to 600,000 pounds of proppant -- the sand and chemicals that keep cracks in the formation open and allow oil to escape; and an oil-bearing section more than 75-feet thick.

Those wells’ initial production ranged from the equivalent of 928 to 1,540 barrels of oil, according to Barrell.

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