Geological Terms . . .

If you are from Pointe Coupee you become familiar with certain geological terms that are associated with mineral production. Few realize that the top gas producing field in on shore Louisiana is Judge Digby Field. The big production is located on Parlange and Wurtell properties along False River.

The second most prolific gas producing area in Pointe Coupee Parish is the Morganza Field, which is somewhere around 9 or 10 in the rankings for onshore gas production.

Located close to the family Plantation is the Moore-Sams Field but production is limited. I think the only good well is located on the back of Sugarland Plantation which belongs to the Beaud family. It is several miles from us on Angeles Plantation. And it does not produce a lot of gas either. Perhaps they will go back in a frack it?

The geological terms or names we are familiar with are Tuscaloosa Trend and Austin Chalk. The Tuscaloosa Trend crops out around Tuscaloosa, Alabama but under Pointe Coupee Parish is anywhere from 18,000 to 21,000 feet deep. Considering the highest point of Pointe Coupee above sea level may be about 35 to 40 feet and average around 30 feet or less, those are very deep holes. The zones or reservoirs of gas are very narrow.

Above the Tuscaloosa Trend lies the Austin Chalk zone. It is somewhere around 15,000 to 17,000 feet down. And the Austin Chalk crops out around Austin, Texas. In fact, wells in eastern Texas in the Austin Chalk seem to be very prolific in production of oil.

Recent mineral leasing activity surrounds the Austin Chalk zone. LSU Petroleum experts think Austin Chalk may have around seven billion barrels of oil in it.

So what is driving the leasing furor. A couple of things. The foremost is the price of oil at around $100 a barrel and looking like it will go higher. But the other thing is changing technology in principally horizontal drilling and fracturing or "Fracking." Both of these technologies have been around for 50 or so years. But equipment has improved and the fracking fluids have improved.

Way back when all petroleum wells were just vertical in demenison, drillers when the got to the geological formation they wanted, would fracture the lower well casing with Nitroglycerene. Yup, they would literally blow it up so to speak fracturing the lower casing of the well and the surround geological deposits.

Today's fracking is differnt. Yes, explosives may still be used to preforate the well casings but then the drillers pump down a mixture of fine sand and chemicals under great pressure to force open cracks for the petroleum products to flow into the casing. The sand holds the cracks open. Oh, yes the pressures used to force the chemicals and sand into the cracks is tremendous.

Ganged up pumps, several in series, force down the mixture into the well. Pressures may exceed 20,000 pounds per square inch. The pumps are mounted on trailers, one pump per trailer. The pumps are generally driven by 12 to 16 cyclinder diesel engines. This is a massive undertaking. Some say they may use up to a quarter of million gallons of water to do the job. But it only takes a day or two to do the actual fracturing, may be a week to set up to do the job.

Fracking is a common practice here in the Weatherford area. The Barnett Shale under lies Tarrant, Parker, Denton counties. Actually, it is much bigger than that and is America's number one producer of natural gas a the moment. At any given moment there are four or five drilling rigs in Parker County and the same in Tarrant County. Tarrant county has turned out to be a richer area but harder to drill for it is in the City of Fort Worth. But that is another story . . .

Not more than a couple of miles from us is a company named, you guessed it, "FracTech." Their fleet of trucks go out as far as Haynesville in Louisiana and Cotton Valley in Oklahoma. Others in the fracking business are Schumlemberger, Halliburton and the other common names of well servicing found across the oil producing areas of Louisiana and Texas.

All wells here undergo fracking. And not all wells produce for long periods, just as that is the same in Louisiana and Pointe Coupee Parish. I have seen several wells get capped and abandoned. Ironically, I have seen new wells be drilled close by, may be 500 yards away from the abandoned well. With slant/horizontal drilling there is no telling just where they are seeking the shale. All the shale wells around here are about 6,000 feet deep, give or take 500 feet.

So it is more risky to drill for success in Pointe Coupee. The wells here produce semi-wet gas, that is there is salt water, condensate and some oil. Gas is the primary objective here. Oil is the primary objective in Pointe Coupee. Every well here has a little tank of detergent that is dribble down the well bore to keep it clear of the crap coming up. A small bit of technology that detergent but it is the life saver of many a well around here.

So the current hot "play" is the Austin Chalk. No telling were the sweet spot is. All of it has some oil, but some oil is not enough, they want a lot of it, like a couple hundred barrels a day production.