[copious.abundance]

Yes yes I know, you'll all laugh and scoff at these things.

Well, most of you will.

But you gotta figure, once they discovered one Bakken, there's bound to be another like it somewhere else. Or maybe even multiple ones!

Here's a website promoting the thing:
http://www.tmslandowners.org/index.html

Where it's located:


Yes, it's a landman's website, who will certainly have a vested interest in promoting the thing. However, he does have an academic study from LSU dating back to 1997 to back up his claim. On the website is an abbreviated version of the study:
--> An Unproven Unconventional Seven Billion Barrel Oil Resource - the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale <--

[...]

Reserve Potential

Well logs have shown an average section thickness of 93 ft (28.3m) of prospective TMS section within the 50 ft (15.2m) net resistive TMS contour. If this figure is used as a lower average thickness limit of the shale and if even only 40% of the resistive TMS section has fracture-induced porosity and permeability, then there would still be a net effective section of approximately 37 ft (11.3m) that could potentially yield hydrocarbons. If fracturing is not widespread and/or if porosities are low, then a conservative figure of 50 bbl per acre foot could probably be assumed. Because the shale section within the 50 ft (15.2m) thickness contour covers an area of about 5900 square miles or 3,776,000 acres (15,281 square km) it potentially could produce approximately 7 billion barrels of oil.

[...]

It just so happens that, yes, an oil company did, in fact, discover oil there very recently:
--> LINK <--

Oil Boom, Again?
"Tuscaloosa Marine Shale - Large Oil Resource Play"
Special to The Watchman June 19, 2008

That’s exactly what Fort Worth, Texas–based Encore Acquisition Company called it last month in a seven-page press release on the prospective oil zone known as the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Encore describes its program as a "large oil resource play" covering 5,900 square miles, of which Encore has already leased some 208,000 net acres.

Encore’s press release goes on to state that it has drilled two wells to date. First is the Joe Jackson Appraisal Well in Amite County, with initial production on a lateral length of 1,650’ that was fractured in three stages and placed on pump with an initial production of 175 barrels of oil per day. The second well, the Richland Plantation Appraisal Well located in East Feliciana Parish, is currently awaiting testing.

[...]

And here's news on that second well, completed in May:
--> LINK <--

Oil Discovered in East Feliciana, Amite
Special to The Watchman June 26, 2008

All eyes have been pointing to the northern end of the Parish on the Louisiana/Mississippi state line. The interest concerns the lands of Dr. Jack Jones, where, Department of Conservation records indicate, the Encore Acquisition Company spud an oil well on October 3, 2007. A direct quote from the public records indicates the following:

COMPLETED 5/5/08 AS A OIL WELL IN THE TUSCALOOSA MARINE SHALE RES;PM F; 74 BOPD; 10 MCFD; 350 CP; 8/64 CK; 35 BWPD; .20%BS&W; 135 GOR; 38.7 GRVTY PERFS 13850-15900' (ST: 10)

The Watchman has asked Petroleum Landman Dan S. Collins, who has an office in Clinton, to interpret the results of that information. Mr. Collins offered the following on a literal interpretation of those heiroglyphics and indicated the general leasing environment that surrounds this announcement.

"Of course, the date indicates the completion date and the formation or reservoir that was targeted. Wells are frequently worked on after their completion date, and production increased to above the figures offered upon completion, but on that day and that time production was as listed.

[...]

38.7 gravity oil. Not bad!

Last, but not least, here is the PDF from Encore describing their plans and results there.
-> Tuscaloosa Marine Shale: Large Oil Resource Play <--

I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this in the future. I just know you're all excited!

[ROCKMAN]

OF2,

You're probably already be aware of the Ts play history but I was analyzing it's potential over 20 years ago. Others have pitched it over the years. Oil patch management is no different then others: not many real pioneers ready to take an arrow.

The results of the new hz holes is interesting but won't get too many companies running in. The initial rates are far from impressive especially when you factor in the high decline rates such hz holes manifest.

But that was the same story when we started hitting some of the shale gas plays a while back. But now we'll drill 6000' to 8000' laterals with 10 or 12 frac stages. And make a nice profit.

I don't know the company but I'll guess they are a promoter using unsophiticated investors. Nothing wrong with that...lots of good plays start that way. Back in the 80's I was involved in such a chumming effort in a shallow gas play in S. TX. After a couple of years the "sophisticated" operators who turned up the noses at first were rushing in when the play proved itself. Maybe the Ts will do the same. But I think it will take another $50 to $100 million in the ground to kick start it. But the money is out there.

[copious.abundance]

^
Yeah I agree those flow rates didn't look too impressive, but from what I could tell it didn't seem like a particularly ambitious horizontal well - a 1650-foot lateral is a lot shorter than the mile-long or more ones I've read about in the Bakken.

They'll be drilling other wells here in the near future, so we'll have to wait and see what happens with those.

[copious.abundance]

We have an update on this (potential) second Bakken. With (maybe) good news. And drama, to boot!

The TMS website I linked above has an update for us. Encore Acquisition drilled a third well (called the "Weyerhauser #1") during the summer and fall. The well was completed in November and its results were reported to the state of Louisiana with good (but not great) news. However, there could be a catch . . .

--> Some informal news <--

By far the most interesting well in the Florida Parishes is the Weyerhaeuser No. 1 Well, located in the extreme northwest corner of St. Helena Parish near Chipola, which commenced drilling by ENCORE ACQUISITION COMPANY June 7, 2008. The well is listed with the Office of Conservation as productive with the following information filed with that office:

REPORT DATE WELL STATUS MEASURED DEPTH TRUE VERT DEPTH DETAIL
11/26/2008 10 17032 COMPLETED 11/8/08 AS A OIL WELL IN THE TUSCALOOSA MARINE SHALE RES;PM P; 323 BOPD; 1 MCFD; 3800 SITP; 3100 CP; 12/64 CK; 360 BWPD; .20%BS&W; 3.1 GOR; 38.7 GRVTY PERFS 14750-15100' & 15600-15903' & 16200-16703' (ST: 10)

In plain language, the well was completed (brought in) on November 8, 2008 as an oil well in the TUSCALOOSA MARINE SHALE testing 323 barrels of oil per day and 1 million cubic feet of gas per day. There were multiple perforations in this well which was reported to have been drilled almost 4,100’ horizontally into the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale after reaching a depth of nearly 13,000 feet.

By any standards a well reported to be producing 323 barrels per day would be considered good, however there are conflicting reports that the well test data were significantly under reported and actually was tested a much higher daily rate.

Confirmed reports from several sources including representatives of the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board indicate the Encore well actually tested 600 – 700 barrels per day along with commercial gas. If that well information is accurate, the Weyerhaeuser well drilled by Encore would be considered excellent and could one of the most significant discoveries within the new unconventional shale basins being developed throughout the United States.

Generally under reporting a well's production would be done to hold down lease prices and competitve buying in an oil play. In the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, the resources are more of a regional phenomenon than in conventional oil deposits where traps and targets are confined to smaller areas, so Encore or other producers would do well to limit information to the public while leasing and development continue.

[...]

This informal news source goes on to talk about another well drilled recently in the area with disappointing results, but apparently they targeted a slightly different zone.

At any rate, a well at 600-700 bpd would be similar to many of the good Bakken wells, so if this is true and can be repeated we could have another Bakken on our hands. Encore is currently drilling another well near the Weyerhauser one so we're sure to be hearing more.

So much excitement!

[AirlinePilot]

OF,

That link looks very fishy to me. At best its a paid cheerleader pumping what look to be marginal prospects. If I was investing I'd stay away based on stuff like this.

I did a good bit of NG well investing back about 15 years ago. i made some money, but I lost more than i made. Its kind of easy for me to see the serious and realistic prospects versus the pump and dump types now.

[eXpat]

But you gotta figure, once they discovered one Bakken, there's bound to be another like it somewhere else. Or maybe even multiple ones!

Of course there´s got to be more of those, somewhere else; we need oil!!!!. And nature has to acknowledge that. It has to. It there´s less of it, it means that we have to reduce our consumption, which is illogical and impossible!!!
Keep up the good work OF!

[bosstab4]

Hey All,

Looks like Encore found a second Bakken! I think that they will improve completion techniques (higher production), and identify the "sweet spots" like EOG and others did in the in the Bakken. Now we just need the Oil price to go back up to $70 and higher.

I wouldn't be surprised to see various companies come in and flank Encore's leases and fill in their gaps.

[yesplease]

That must be why my cousin's company mentioned sending him out to Louisiana after their lease on their rigs off the CA coast was up... Small world.

[copious.abundance]

OF,

That link looks very fishy to me. At best its a paid cheerleader pumping what look to be marginal prospects. If I was investing I'd stay away based on stuff like this.

That's why I called it an "informal" news source. Also notice my comment in the first post right beneath the map.

But often there is some truth to these rumors.

I did a good bit of NG well investing back about 15 years ago. i made some money, but I lost more than i made. Its kind of easy for me to see the serious and realistic prospects versus the pump and dump types now.

If this does, in fact, turn out to be another Bakken, we will be dealing with a serious prospect.

[ROCKMAN]

Yep....4100' lateral is getting there. Nice test results but it's common for a well to be tested at various rates (multiple chocks) so the same well can have legitimate tests of 100 bopd and 1000 bopd. Estimating the optimum rate is the real issue.

It will take at least 12 months of sustained production by multiple wells to determine the true economic value. Actually find oil to produce in these wells wasn't difficult...every knew there was oil there. The real question is the future production profile. I've had wells come in at 500 bopd and didn't recover half their cost before depleting to non-commercial levels. But the initial news is encouraging and as oil prices eventually rebound we’ll probably see a lot more drilling.

A side note: the Florida parishes (that area in La. north of Lake Pontchartrain) is made of huge lease holdings by the lumber companies. Cut the right deal at the right time and even a small promoter could pick up 100's of thousands of acres with one signature.

[copious.abundance]

Thanks Rock. Yeah I'm figuring Encore and whatever other companies are working there are just kinda testing stuff now while waiting for oil to go back to $50 or more.

I was also thinking the same thing about the timber company lands. Must be a real nice place to rack up some big acreage real easily.

[Plantagenet]

Hey All,

Looks like Encore found a second Bakken!

So what? The first Bakken has produced only a small amount of oil. What would be so great about a second one?

[ROCKMAN]

Plant,

That's always the frustarting thing about exploration: one should always be pessimistic about the optimism one needs to drive the process. Be cautious and don't drill to many wells = don't find much = you go out of business. Drill a lot of dry holes = don't find much = you go out of business.

[Blacksmith]

Plant,

That's always the frustarting thing about exploration: one should always be pessimistic about the optimism one needs to drive the process. Be cautious and don't drill to many wells = don't find much = you go out of business. Drill a lot of dry holes = don't find much = you go out of business.

The object of any exploration company seen to find enough to be attractivre and then sell the company.

One well near us drill about 5 years ago is on it's fifth owner and still has yet to produce a barrel of oil or an mcf of gas

[copious.abundance]

Hey All,

Looks like Encore found a second Bakken!

So what? The first Bakken has produced only a small amount of oil. What would be so great about a second one?

North Dakota's oil production is up to 215K bpd as of November (link, PDF, scroll to bottom of page). That's up from about 100K bpd at the beginning of 2006 - an increase of 115K bpd in 3 years, nearly all of which has come from the Bakken and the associated Three Forks/Sanish formation just below it.

So, if you've got several of these, added together they can start to add up. Let's say there are 6 or more of these oil-bearing shale formations scattered around the US. There's already threads here on 3 - the Bakken itself, this one, and the Woodford Shale. There are certain to be others of various sizes - for example, early last year EOG drilled a well in the Niobrara shale in northern Colorado with an initial flow rate of 550 bpd. They're even starting to find and drill oil from the Barnett shale, which until now had been considered a natural gas play. And so on.

Out of these 6, assume you've got 5 bigger ones producing an average of, say, 150K bpd, and maybe several other smaller ones producing a total of another 150K bpd. That's 900K bpd. In a nation which currently produces about 5 million bpd, a 900K bpd addition would be a significant boost.

Even if you only had 4 of these producing at an average of 100K bpd, a 400K bpd addition to a nation producing 5 million bpd is still a noticeable 8% increase.

[Plantagenet]

North Dakota's oil production is up to 215K bpd as of November (link, PDF, scroll to bottom of page). That's up from about 100K bpd at the beginning of 2006 - an increase of 115K bpd in 3 years, nearly all of which has come from the Bakken and the associated Three Forks/Sanish formation just below it.

So, if you've got several of these, added together they can start to add up. Let's say there are 6 or more of these oil-bearing shale formations scattered around the US. There's already threads here on 3 - the Bakken itself, this one, and the Woodford Shale. There are certain to be others of various sizes - for example, early last year EOG drilled a well in the Niobrara shale in northern Colorado with an initial flow rate of 550 bpd. They're even starting to find and drill oil from the Barnett shale, which until now had been considered a natural gas play. And so on.

Out of these 6, assume you've got 5 bigger ones producing an average of, say, 150K bpd, and maybe several other smaller ones producing a total of another 150K bpd. That's 900K bpd. In a nation which currently produces about 5 million bpd, a 900K bpd addition would be a significant boost.

Even if you only had 4 of these producing at an average of 100K bpd, a 400K bpd addition to a nation producing 5 million bpd is still a noticeable 8% increase

Certainly its nice to find small oil fields in the continental US, and I agree that it is likely there are quite a few more plays to be found on various shale formations that might be productive. But the Bakken has been ballyhooed as new giant multi-billion barrel oil province when it is just a widespread shale formation that has been explored for decades and may have some small oil fields associated with it that can be economically tapped with horizontal drilling. The Tuscaloosa and other shales are also highly unlikely to ever produce millions of barrels of oil per day, or to reach the billion barrel level.

[copious.abundance]

^
That didn't make much sense. If a 115k bpd (and possibly more) rate of production after just 3 years of development only counts as a small oil field, then nothing would satisfy you.

[copious.abundance]

We have (more-or-less) confirmation of the 600-700 bpd figure cited by my "informal news source" for Encore's Weyerhauser well.

However they've got some work to do to bring down the costs. Bakken wells typically cost about $4-$6 million these days, and this one ran a bill of $11 million.

>>> Encore Acquisition Q4 Conference Call - Seeking Alpha <<<

[...]

Now, let me fill you in on the TMS play. We brought on our third well and it came in at over 500 barrels a day. So, we’re pretty pleased with that, and that was encouraging. I think the problem with this play that we’re seeing is that the wells cost over $11 million when you include our trouble time.

And right now it’s hard to keep drilling those in a $40 price environment. I think if we do anything in TMS, it will be towards the end of 2009 and when we’re more comfortable with the budget and seeing how the free cash flow has paid down debt.

So I think we’re just going to be cautious. We’re excited about it and we’re excited to see that rate. It’s also time for us to go back and do more science on this. We need to do more science on the completion and relook at our drilling and different ways to drill these wells and maybe figure out a way to drill them more efficiently. But we were encouraged with the rate.

[...]

Then down near the bottom of this page here in response to a question he said it would be more attractive if oil prices were higher. Then at the top of the next page he says the goal is to get the well costs down to about $6-$7 million per well.

So, looks like some promise, but nothing too exciting - yet. For the time being perhaps we can call this "Another Bakken, but more expensive."

On March 3rd they're holding an analyst's meeting in New York, maybe we'll learn a little more then.

[copious.abundance]

OK, I'm going to post this post not to make any notable statements about anything, but to give anyone doing research on this shale a few obscure and unexpected places to start looking. I've noticed this thread already comes up second on google if you type in "Tuscaloosa Marine Shale" so hopefully I can help someone.



I've been looking everywhere on the internet to try to find out exactly how far north, south, east and west this thing goes, but it looks like no one is really sure. The area cited in the study I linked on the first page happened to be the boundaries of a study area some researchers back in 1999 decided to choose - why, I'm not sure. However, I doubted the boundaries of the shale conveniently stopped at the Louisiana-Mississippi boundary on the east, and at the Louisiana-Texas boundary on the west - which is what the study showed. So, doubting that, I've tried to find out if anyone knows the "real" boundaries of this shale, but have come up dry.

If it's called the "Tuscaloosa" Marine Shale, wouldn't that mean it goes all the way up to . . . Tuscaloosa?

Only one way to find out . . .

I first found some indications it might go as far east as west-central Georgia. Maybe (see last link below). Otherwise it appears certain to me to go into southern Mississippi and Alabama. But I'm no geologist so I'm not familiar with some of the distinctions in terminology (and name-ology) geologists use, so this is just a stab to get anyone who's interested a place to start.

As a disclaimer, I'm not claiming these locations of the shale have any oil or gas in them, I just wanna find out how far this thing extends.

One important thing I did find out was that this shale is this is part of what's often referred to as the "Tuscaloosa Group" or also the "Tuscaloosa-Woodbine Shale" or the "Tuscaloosa-Woodbine Group." In other documents I've found it referred to as the "Marine Tuscaloosa Shale." Damn geologists should take a clue from biologists and standardize the names of these things. In Latin!

Anyway, here goes . . .

This link here (PDF) is a study for a CO2 sequestering project. They're looking for good spots to store power plant CO2 undergound, and it just so happens that part of the "Tuscaloosa Group" has good characteristics for doing so. But they've also encountered the "Marine Tuscaloosa Formation" when taking their core samples. The site is in Jackson County, which is in far southeastern Mississippi. Page 16 says the Marine Tuscaloosa is at 7,670 feet below the surface here and is 490 feet thick. Page 19 confirms it's a shale they're referring to. Page 21 has a picture of the core sample and (I think) a drilling log.

Next we can go a bit farther east into southern Alabama. This PDF here is for yet another CO2 sequestering study for yet another power plant. The "Marine Tuscaloosa Shale" here, according to the diagram, is found from about 6,400 to about 6,750 feet deep. There's even an oil field here (the Citronelle Field) with 42-46 degree oil. The TMS (or, should I say, the MTS) is the seal for this field. This link also has a hydrocarbon maturity chart, and my highly inexpert eye thinks the TMS might be "early mature" here but I can't really tell. Apparently the TMS is not the source for the oil field, just the seal.

Next we go all the way back to 1980. Here (PDF) are synopses of presentations at a conference called "Geology of the Woodbine and Tuscaloosa Formations." Obviously they've known there's oil and gas in this formation for decades, but as everyone knows, it wasn't until horizontal drilling and fraccing and blah blah blah that they've been able to actually get the oil and gas out of these things, but anyway . . . somewhere at the beginning of the document it says something about the formation (maybe not the shale itself) going all the way into far western Georgia. Page 24 talks explicitly about the "Marine Shale" of the Tuscaloosa Group once again going into southern Alabama, and has another associated oil field (the South Carlton Field). Page 26 says something about Lee and Russel counties, in east-central Alabama near the Georgia border . . . but we still aren't anywhere near Tuscaloosa. Page 28 finally says something about this going all the way up to northwest Alabama, northeast Mississippi and western Tennessee, and from what I can understand it surfaces up there ("Outcrop" in the title). I guess you could say Tuscaloosa is in northwestern Alabama, so maybe that's where it got its name.

Anyway those were the most interesting links. Yes, I was bored and had nothing better to do. But I hope I help someone out.

EDIT: Just found something interesting.

>>> Geology of Alabama <<<


^
According to the caption the broad green stripe going from the NW part of the state and swinging through the central part of the state is the Tuscaloosa Group. I'm guessing this is where it surfaces, then gets deeper as it goes south and west. If you pull out a map of Alabama you can see where Tuscaloosa County is on this thing.

A similar map of Mississippi here shows the Tuscaloosa Group surfacing in the NE corner of the state. Then I'm guessing the green Cretaceous lobe in western Tennessee on this map here is the Tuscaloosa Group surfacing in Tennessee.

[copious.abundance]

Finally some news on this!

BTW, could a mod please move this thread to the Americas section? Thanks.

Denbury Resources - who bought out Encore Acquisition a year or two ago - had their 1st quarter conference call recently and said they've got a joint venture lined up.

LINK

We'll switch gears and talk a little bit about Denbury's position in the Tuscaloosa marine shale in Mississippi and Louisiana. We acquired approximately 200,000 acres of leases in Mississippi and Louisiana with short lease expirations through our Encore acquisition. Encore has spent a conservative amount of capital and time testing the Tuscaloosa marine shale, which resulted and the only Tuscaloosa marine shales with continuous production to date. Given our planned activity in our CO2 EOR operations in the Bakken and the relatively short period of time before leases were going to expire, we decided to seek a joint venture partner to continue testing the Tuscaloosa marine shale.

We have entered into an agreement with a joint venture partner covering approximately 100,000 acres of the Tuscaloosa marine shale acreage that had not yet expired. Under this agreement, the joint venture partner provided immediate capital to extend expiring leases, has a right to elect to complete a well that was never completed, drill and complete one additional well, and to carry us in additional leak -- lease acquisitions until such time as an agreed-upon amount of capital is invested. After the joint venture partner has expended the agreed-upon capital by completing the one well, drilling an additional well and/or acquiring additional leases, Denbury will have the opportunity to participate for 15% working interest in all future drilling on a unit-by-unit election.

etc.

I don't know for sure, but I wonder if the JV partner is Devon? Some info from a blogger who's started keeping track of TMS news:

>>> Devon Energy Announces The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Play

· The TMS is the stratigraphical equivalent to the Eagle Ford Shale
· The TMS is approximately 200 to 400 feet thick, at depths of 11,000 to 14,000 feet across the acreage position
· Oil production has been established, up dip in the play from the TMS
· They plan to utilize horizontal drilling and fracture stimulation to enhance the productivity of the reservoir in both the oil and liquids rich portion of the play.
· They have leased or have committed under contract approximately 250,000 prospective net acres, at an average cost of $180 per acre.
· They plan to drill the first two horizontal wells in the play this year.

Etc.

So, either the two companies are going to do a JV, or we've got two notable companies (especially Devon) who are stirring things up there.

On Page 2 a guy at Denbury sounds like they're thinking of developing it using EOR with CO2 flooding. Would be interesting:

No, I mean we could. It's just that the results are very, very early in this play. I mean, even some of the comments yesterday -- I've heard several people mentioned it is frontier. So we've got a lot of opportunities to continue our EOR development, and we're just going to watch our JV partner and see if we can -- if they can unlock secrets to the Tuscaloosa marine shale and then when we feel like it's de-risked further that we can look at developing the TMS under our existing CO2 floods.

So much excitement!