Wednesday, January 03, 2007 11:23:33 PM
the board late at night. But, yes, that's what I'm talkin' about.
Colusa County on the west edge of Grimes/Sutter County is where savey operators are wheelin' & dealin' for some of those russian finds. You can raise some good money selling leases there in that basin. Of course, the only reason to sell mineral leases there is because you can make a bunch more money somewhere else...like Freestone County, Texas and the like.
In East Texas, the Oak Hill Field, overlaying the historic East Texas oil field near Kilgore, doubled its production since 2000.
The Buffalo Wallow field in the Panhandle along the Oklahoma border did the same thing from 2004 to 2005, taking up some of the slack of the slowly exhausted Panhandle West Field nearby.
In far West Texas under the Texas-New Mexico border, the Haley Field in Loving County also doubled production last year.
There are these and some growing gas prospects that attract BIGN more than Grimes, California:
"...Everybody over here is chasing natural gas now," says James Smith, a Tyler geologist and four-decade veteran of East Texas drilling.
There are a couple of problem spots in Texas' natural-gas lineup. The venerable Panhandle West field near Amarillo, which leads all Texas gas fields with more than 20 trillion cubic feet of production since it opened seven decades ago, is clearly on the downside with production dropping at the rate of 12 percent annually. Absent a burst of new drilling the Panhandle West could be exhausted within a decade.
"The future for natural gas in Texas is in unconventional fields like the Barnett Shale, where new technology can be brought into play," said Dr. Ian Duncan of the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology. "The Giddings Field could be anticipated to run down fast; the gas is trapped in natural faults and comes out quickly. The Barnett should deplete more slowly."
But while Texas' oil fields have no rookie talent, some interesting new natural gas fields have come into play in the past five years while the industry has focused on the Barnett Shale.
In East Texas, the Oak Hill Field, overlaying the historic East Texas oil field near Kilgore, doubled its production since 2000.
The Buffalo Wallow field in the Panhandle along the Oklahoma border did the same thing from 2004 to 2005, taking up some of the slack of the slowly exhausted Panhandle West Field nearby.
In far West Texas under the Texas-New Mexico border, the Haley Field in Loving County also doubled production last year.
Haley isn't for cash-poor beginners; wells are 18,000 feet deep and production costs start at $5 million (double the price of an 8,000-foot Barnett Shale well) and can easily top $10 million.
"It's a tough, expensive field to drill, but they're getting production," said Midland consultant Hall.
An even more intriguing play is directly west of Loving County in Culberson County, where big independents are rushing to take leases for what is whispered to be a Barnett Shale-like play.
So while little prospect of young oil fields appears on the Texas horizon, the state has several promising natural-gas prospects and a roster of well-capitalized independent producers eager for development.
"Everybody is looking for the next Barnett Shale," geologist Duncan said. "At least in natural-gas production, there's a chance we'll find it."
Dan Piller, (817) 390-7719 danpil@star-telegram.com
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