Comstock to suspend 2015 oil drilling in Eagle Ford, TMS

Due to low crude oil prices, Comstock Resources Inc., Frisco, Tex., plans to suspend its 2015 oil-directed drilling activity on properties in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas and Tuscaloosa Marine shale (TMS) in Mississippi.

Comstock will instead target natural gas on its Haynesville shale natural gas properties in North Louisiana. The company “believes that improved completion technology, including longer laterals, will provide strong returns on drilling projects at current natural gas prices.”

Comstock has released its rig in the TMS and will postpone drilling activity in the area until oil prices improve.

The company currently operates four rigs drilling on its Eagle Ford properties. Two will be released in early 2015 while the other two will move to start a drilling program in the Haynesville.

The company plans to drill 19 horizontal wells in 2015, of which 14 will be Haynesville-Bossier shale gas wells and five will be drilled its Eagle Ford acreage.

Thirteen Eagle Ford wells are expected to be completed in 2015. In June, the company drilled the Henry A No. 1H well in Burleson County, Tex., to a vertical depth of 9,514 ft (OGJ Online, June 26, 2014). It tested at a peak 24-hr average production rate of 1,267 boe/d, of which 1,023 b/d was oil and 1.5 MMcfd was natural gas.

The company has 33,900 gross acres—30,400 net—prospective for oil in Burleson County.

Comstock also plans to refrac 10 of its existing Haynesville producing wells as part of the 2015 program.

Comstock—which has budgeted $307 million in 2015 for drilling and completion activities—estimates that the drilling program will generate company-wide oil production of 3.5-3.9 million bbl and natural gas production of 55-60 bcf during the year.