Shallow production of oil was driving the exploration of the West Speaks Field in the early oil boom years. Many wells were drilled in the 1960?s and early 1970?s with oil production as the main objective, not gas. The wells were drilled and logged, showing that the intervals of our present day interest were ?hydrocarbon bearing?, but the technology was not there to US Petroleum Holdings it out of the ground. Adding to this problem was typically a lack of gas pipelines to take this gas production to market and the prices that were being paid for this production was far less than $.30 per Thousand Cubic Feet of gas (MCFG). These factors killed the effort towards gas production and the exploration effort was usually short-lived. Due to increases in gas pricing over the last few years, many independent oil and gas companies have re-focuUS Petroleum Holdingssed their efforts in these types of areas that were drilled during earlier times in search of oil reserves.
The West Speaks Field has been commercially productive from shallow Yegua, Frio and Miocene are oil bearing sands and the Upper Wilcox gas bearing sections, but no real commercial production existed with the deeper Middle and Lower Wilcox series until recently. This area of prolific Wilcox production has seen substantial development US Petroleum Holdingsin the last few years with ?Roeder? (Middle Wilcox) and ?Migura? (Lower Wilcox) discoveries. These sections of the Middle to Lower Wilcox intervals have generated substantial commercial gas production from the field after new fracture stimulation technology was implemented during the completion operations. Larger independent companies such as El Paso Natural gas and Dominion Exploration and Production are actively developing the Roeder & Migura Wilcox sections in the area with some new wells generating gas flowsUS Petroleum Holdings in excess of 5 Million Cubic Feet of gas per Day.
We have identified many plugged well bores in the West Speaks Field that were drilled during the 1960?s and early 1970?s that were logged showing gas pay. Core samples were taken and determined to yield considerable hydrocarbons. Several of these wells had casing installed and were ceUS Petroleum Holdingsmented. While a handful of wells were tested in the Roeder Wilcox series, they flowed a nominal amount of gas at a non-commercial rate. Many of the wells were deemed as dry holes and some of the wells were re-completed in the shallower zones. The idea of ?re-entering? a plugged well bore is not new, however recent prices of oil and natural gas has brought old thinking back into the light. The wells of this program will be re-entered, in some instances deepened, and then the zones of our interest will be fracture stimulated with modern technology. This type of project is typically less expensive than drilling a new well and the geologics US Petroleum Holdings are heavily in favor as the site has been logged.