Oklahoma: Eastern Mississippi lime play spreads out

This article was updated to include information from SandRidge Energy Inc.

The eastern limb of the Mississippi lime dewatering play in the US Midcontinent has attracted numerous small and large operators.

The formation is now being drilled horizontally after having produced through vertical wells for more than 50 years. IHS Inc. noted last week that the land play covers more than 17 million acres in northern Oklahoma, western Kansas, and southwestern Nebraska (OGJ Online, Aug. 1, 2012).

Devon Energy Corp. said it has increased its exposure to the light oil resource play to 545,000 net acres. Other acreage holders on the eastern limb include Range Resources Corp., Highmount Exploration & Production Co., Halcon Resources Corp., PetroQuest Energy Inc., and numerous private entities.

SandRidge Energy, which plans to drill 380 Mississippi lime horizontal well by the end of 2012, expects to be running 33 rigs at the end of the year.

Four of the 29 rigs SandRidge is now running drill disposal wells, given that Mississippi Lime wells produce 90% water along with commercial volumes of oil. SandRidge told investors it plans to drill 10 producing wells for every disposal well when it reaches development mode compared with five producing wells per disposal well at present

Red Fork Energy Ltd., Perth, which has built its nonoperated position to 75,000 net acres east of the Nemaha ridge in five Oklahoma counties, agreed to sell its crude to a subsidiary of Phillips 66. The oil will be pipelined or trucked to the 187,000 b/d Ponca City, Okla., refinery.

Red Fork Energy just completed the McMurtry 1-21H well in Noble County, Okla., in which it has 62.2% working interest, at a peak rate of 494 b/d of 38° gravity oil and 1.3 MMcfd of high-BTU gas. The well’s 23-day average was 470 boe/d.

All operators have drilled more than 640 horizontal wells in the play so far, and 65 rigs were drilling in the play late in the second quarter of 2012, Red Fork Energy said.