Not Hearing Much . . .

Not hearing much about Oil, Gas and Mineral Leases (OGML) in Pointe Coupee. Seems like all the activity is in the North part of the Pointe Coupee Parish. And if one looks at the stylized drawing of where the Austin Chalk is located, it makes sense.

The older gas deposits could be said to be part of the "Down Dip of the Edwards Shelf." At least the well on Alma, lead scout well of the era, is said to be of that ilk. That is the False River field. As one moves slightly to the North and West, the gas wells are in Judge Digby Field (basically Parlange and Wurtell holdings). Judge Digby is North of and abuts to Frisco Ridge Field.

The Frisco Field is all oil and is down about 11,500 to 13,000 feet in depth. This is an old field and for a while they were ejecting water into it get the dregs of oil out of it. They shut in most of the wells and used one central well to get the oil out. Now, they are drilling a new well at a greater depth - 13,000. I think this is said to be in the Moncref zone, well above the Austin Chalk (or AC) and Judge Digby Tuscaloosa Trend wells.

We are waiting to see how the LaCour #43 turns out. It is reporting a good well but they seem to be working on it a lot post drilling operations. Rumor is that the long lateral, about 7,000 in the AC is subject to collapse.

The AC is hard, naturally fractured but is no where near as hard as the shale beneath it. That shale is said to be the cap to the Tuscaloosa Trend and is known as the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (or TMS).

All the OGML to the North and East of Pointe Coupee Parish, literally across the Mississippi River are said to be for the TMS. So it is AC in Pointe Coupee and TMS in West and East Felecianas, East Baton Rouge Parishes and further East and North into Mississippi along the common state border lines.

The "Go Haynesville Shale" forum seems to think that the TMS and the AC will sort of meld together. The TMS is generally known as the Eagle Ford in adjacent Texas (another hot spot). Truthfully all are slightly different and are related to the Edwards Shelf.

Time will tell.

Got A New Car . . .

Got a new car, an Explorer. My old Mountaineer was beginning to evidence some problems of age. The tranny was acting kind of funny when cold, like the internals were sticking. Time for a brake job. Air conditioner a bit on the weak side, still fine but probably needed a tune up. And, oh yeah, it had 93,000 miles and was gonna be due for the 100,000 mile check up. And these vehicles resale value drop like a rock after a 100,000 miles.

So it was time. Either keep the old one for another 50,000 miles and do all the maintenance or get a new one, at least new to me.

I got a 2010 with 17,000 miles on it. It has extra seats in the back, fold down electrically, rear cooling/heating system (got to take care of the third row passengers). It also has dual heating/cooling system that Judie likes. Tan interior and black exterior (not sure I like that too much, but . . .). Electric front seats on both sides (the old one just had that stuff on the driver's seat), heated seats, passenger side air bags and media control on the steering wheel. It has Sync for the cell phones but does not have the navigation system (I think I can find my way around). Got satellite radio too.

So it is a bit of an up grade to the old vehicle, a bit more modern.

I have already installed my model stuff in the back. That is easily removed and will be removed when the Jacob Morrisons arrive. I am sure grandson Will will be installed in the third row. We shall see.

It has got a funking gas filler. You just push the pump nozzle into it. Kind of hard to add additives if you do that kind of thing. They give you a special little funnel for that.

Basically, it is the same vehicle with more modern accoutrements in it. And all the rest is the same. Except this vehicle is black instead of tan. And it is Ford and not a Mercury or a Lincoln. But that is just fine as they no longer make the Mercury and Lincoln does not make their equivalent to Explorer any more either. So it is a spiffy newer vehicle and I do not have to worry about the 100,000 maintenance routine (new plugs, belts, etc.).

What a Waste . . .

Just read where Tulane is building a football stadium. Well, doh! Why did they tear down the old Sugar Bowl, a fine stadium at one time that was the biggest in all Louisiana. Why the Super Dome of course. It was supposed to replace the Sugar Bowl and be Tulane's home field.

So why can't Tulane play in the "dome." Of course they can and do. But they can not fill the dome much less any new stadium until they have a decent team. They had a shot a making a decent team by playing LSU but got out of that because Toledo's nose was bent out of joint. LSU simply wanted to make a little money on the deal instead of losing money on the deal. Tulane could not even begin to fill the dome thus it was a money losing proposition. Well they finally fired Toledo or he quit which ever comes first.

LSU said play in Baton Rouge and we will continue the series. Tulane said, "Up yours!" They got a one time payout of about a half million dollars and were told don't ever come back. Tulane has sunk even lower and hardly qualifies to be a Division I team anymore.

And now they want to waste money on a new stadium. Have they gone brain dead? They need to build a football team first, they think about a new stadium. If they do not then they will have another empty foregone place to play football.

I would have thought my brothers in New Orleans had more sense.

Geaux Tigers

Oh My God . . .

Just recieved a report from Haynesville Shale Forum that LaCour #43 well is producing 3,000 barrels of oil per day (B0PD). A bit of caution, in that the Anadarko well in Avoyelles reported initially 2,000 BOPD and it turned out most of it was water. It got rechecked and it is producing a little less than 800 BOPD and the remainder was water. Later it slowed down on the water to something less than 300 barrels of water per day. Of course 800 BOPD oil per day is not shabby. That would be around $8,000 per day at $100 a barrel price.

None-the-less, that is a whoppa of a well in Avoyelles Parish. I am sure there will be more information available shortly. Right now there is nothing to be found in SONRIS Lite, this data came out of SONRIS, the full time Louisiana Department of Natural Resources data base. So I expect in a couple of days there will be more information on Sonris Lite. Then I will know more.

This is terrific news for all of Pointe Coupee. It means another oil boom is underway. And this one is bigger than ever before. Technology has caught up with three dimensional siesmic analysis and more extensive horizontal drilling coupled with fracking technology improvements. As gas is declining in the Judge Digby Field, oil is cropping up in the LaCour Field.

This an Austin Chalk zone well. In my presuit of information I have found that the Austin Chalk sits atop the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS). TMS is coupled to the Eagle Ford formation in Texas, another oil boom zone. TMS is the hot topic in West and East Felecianas and going on Eastward. It extends South to East Baton Rouge (only the Northern extremes around Zachary and over towards the Mississippi River. For example, the Mississippi River bottom has been leased by the State of Louisiana from around St. Francisville Southward past the new John J. Audobon Bridge.

I am sure North Pointe Coupee is going to be turned into a lease bonaza. Perhaps all along the Mississippi River in what is locally known as Pointe Coupee. These wells are not as deep as the Tuscaloosa Trend but are plenty deep.

The horizontal lateral of the LaCour #43 is a little more than a mile long. The depth of the well is about 16,300 and the total is around 22,000 feet. As far as I can determine it is drilled toward the East at maybe an angle of 95 or 100 degrees from the North. So it is on a slight angle down from due East. I would not be surprised that the next well be located in the forebay of the Morganza Spillway.

Maybe out turn has come. We shall see.

Strange Little Critters . . .

Our little lizards are strange little critters. Our matriarch, Fritzina, is the biggest baddest one of the bunch but she has spawned any number of second generation lizards that are all around us.

Of recent times, some of her off spring have decided to live in her turf, so to speak. We have watched them grow from a little over an inch and half to almost full size. They have fine long tails while Fritzina has a shorter one, I think something got a hold of her and it got sacrificed. No matter we see them often on the patio.

Of late Fritz junior has been hiding in and around the baker's rack that is adjacent to the back door. The baker's rack is against a short brick wall that faces south, and is only about four or so feet wide - just right for the baker's rack. We find him in the flower pots and lately entwined on the bakers rack or just on the wall behind the rack. His coloring matches quite well with our bricks, so one has look carefully to see him sometimes, they blend in well.

He seems to come in at night and clings to the wall. It is, I think, a safe spot from predators. He has the rack between him and free space from a potential attacker to get at him. Good instincts I guess for I am sure they have limited intelligence. Their life is food and survival.

Well Fritzina discovered the interloper in her territory. A couple of nights ago I noted not one but two Fritzs behind the rack. But in the AM I found only Fritzina behind the rack. Me thinks she chased them away.

Yesterday, while cutting the grass, I do the weed eating, Judie cuts the grass ala styled like her father, Bill Gremillion. I had trimmed the usual spots along the front curb and by the power transformer and was walking toward the back yard. When all of sudden I saw Fritzina taking off toward a Hackberry tree. She quickly climbed and moved to the opposite side from me. So when I went of to see her, she scooted around to the other side away from me. Of course, I had that lethal weed eater in my hands.

Any rate, it is getting cooler and the Fritz, etal, will soon be seeking a winter haven. I am sure they burrow under some leaves to find a spot to winter over until next year. Their season is coming to an end. Being cold blooded animals, they need the heat and with that fast disappearing, they will go into hibernation.

The Market . . .

Looks like the bottom has fallen out of the market, the stock market. The market does not like Obama, his jobs plan (or reality lack of a job plan) and European debt problems (Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy). The only European country that seems to be solving its problems is Ireland. Great Britian, not a member of the common market or a member of the European Economic Community, seems to be holding its own. Germany, bouying up the European economy, is fighting to hold on. The Swiss simply sit back and wait. Nothing heard from in the newly liberated states in Eastern Europe. I suspect they are truly teetering on ruin. No tell what is going on in Russia.

All that adds up with Obama uncertainly premeating the economy here in the states bodes bad news for all markets. The only thing seeming to be doing good is commodities but that is way to risky for me to get involved in. I suspect gold and silver will soar.

I guess I will just stick with coins for the moment. My collection will probably appreciate quite a bit. Though I am not in it for profit.

I see a buying opportunity opening up. Probably tomorrow. Also time to unload losers. I am of the opinion to trim some of those less than stalwart performers. I will probably buy some more DVY, an Exchange Traded Fund of dividend paying stocks. It is yielding 3.58%. at least that is well above US bonds. So it is probably a good time to acquire some more of it. It spreads the risk across 90 stocks and pays well.

And all the while a new roof is going on - in the rain. Things have stopped due to the sky is leaking. No hard rains but they can not count on that and must sit by and wait. I'm thinking they are finished for the day.

Football Weekend . . .

Football got into its first real football weekend. The previous games were sort of warm ups. The big time teams schedule the "big check" teams to play usually at home where the stadium is quite large and the seats get filled. The big check teams are wanta bes, need the extra revenue and the NCAA forces the big teams to schedule a few of the little guys every year.

LSU opened with Oregon, which was not a big check team. Oregon was ranked #3 and LSU #4 and the game was played at the Cowboys stadium in Arlington, TX. That was a neutral field for both teams but it really was more an LSU turf area. LSU sent about 37,000 fans and Oregon about 15,000 fans. Of couse, it is history now, LSU stomped Oregon and took its place in the national rankings. Oregon fell back to about #15 or so in the rankings. Oregon has since trashed a couple of teams out west.

LSU played Northwestern State, the Demons, from Natchitoches, LA. They were no competiton. The first string for LSU played the first half and the rest of the team played the second half. A good way for gaining experience.

LSU has since played Miss State, my father's alma mater. It was a good but tough game. Miss State played well for a while but simply got worn down by LSU. LSU's conditioning was superior and their depth of players was greater. Not that Miss State does not have a big team, they just do not have the talent in depth that LSU has. LSU really took over in the third quarter and by the fourth quarter had decimated the Miss State team.

Now on to West Virginia for LSU. Going to be a good regional game. Clemson demolished Auburn this weekend in an ACC rivalry game. Tigers facing Tigers. Auburn just barely beat Miss State and BYU. Both teams they played put up pretty big scores. They just out scored them. Miss State did not even score a touchdown against LSU. Clemson out scoured Auburn. That bodes badly for Auburn, no defense to speak of. Bama and LSU will eat them up.

So we will see how another high scoring offense does against the Tigers in the West Virgina team. Could be very interesting to watch. Since LSU shut down Oregon's vaunted offense and Miss State's offense, it will be challenge to take down West Virginia's offense.

Other teams that got stuffed were Ohio State. Miami took them down. They did not look to good to me. Notre Dame took down Meechigan State too. So a few of the big timers got shut down. Watched Kentucky lose to Louisville. That is an in state rivalry. I think I saw that Vanderbuilt destroyed Ole Miss, if so that is a bad set back for Houston Nutt. His days maybe numbered.