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Marcellus
from page 34
and drilled the fourth horizontal test of
the Marcellus. This time, they moved the
landing of the horizontal well 20 feet higher
in the section.
Immediately following this discovery the
company drilled and completed three more
successful horizontal wells in a row, each
more productive than the fourth.
That provided the breakthrough needed.
That well tested at 3.2 million cubic feet
a day, the company’s and industry’s first
commercial horizontal Marcellus well.
Range Resources announced those
results in late 2007, and in 2008 the
Marcellus Shale play went into overdrive.
Some predicted the Marcellus would
become the biggest producing gas field in
the United States.
In 2012, it did.
“I thought my strength was in my
conviction,” Zagorski said. “I feel very
blessed to have been given the opportunity
to be part of the early pioneering of shale gas.”
Maybe I’m Amazed
When industry people talk about
finding successful approaches to get high
production from a reservoir, they often call
it “unlocking the play.” The Marcellus had
been unlocked, but developing it was far
from easy.
“There were no experienced crews
up here,” Zagorski said. “It was a real
challenge.
“One of the critical breakthroughs was
Range started a technical office here in
Southpointe, Pa., in 2007, led by Texas
Barnett shale veteran Ray Walker, now
Range’s COO, from Fort Worth. This office
was then staffed with people who were
focused specifically on developing the
Marcellus,” he added.
In the end, shale play development
proved an old exploration home truth once
again. To get good oil and gas production,
go where the oil and gas is.
“I’m a big proponent of looking at old gas
shows,” Zagorski said. “It seems to me the
bigger and more consistent the gas shows,
the better the reservoir.”
“The reason I think the Marcellus and
other recent shale plays got missed is
that, prior to the Barnett, it was believed
that there had to be natural fracturing for
shale plays to produce commercially, like
the Big Sandy Field in Kentucky and West
Virginia. In that field they were using various
stimulation designs, early on shooting with
explosive followed by various frac methods,
most often nitrogen foam fracs,” he said.
The new approach to unlocking shale
production with large-scale water fracs and
horizontal drilling “seems so simple now, but
it was largely untested and counterintuitive
up until 2004 with the Barnett play
successes,” he noted.
Range Resources now claims between
26 trillion and 34 trillion cubic feet (Tcf)
equivalent of resource potential in the
Marcellus Shale, and another 12-18 Tcf in the
Upper Devonian shales above the Marcellus.
Zagorski hadn’t seen that coming.
“Initially, in my studies, I couldn’t get my
estimate of the prospect potential to the
company past a half a Tcf, or even a Tcf,”
he said.
He’s amazed, even dazed, at where
successful development of the Marcellus
Shale has led.
“All that work I had done in various plays
and prospects over the last 30 years,” he said,
“we can achieve in a matter of months now.
“It really is amazing.”
Levant
from page 36
facilities are limited in places and there are
commercial issues to be resolved, such as
export approvals and more.
The reservoirs are capable of delivering
high rates of production.
“Someone commented that it’s like
having a Ferrari, but you have to drive it
through a school zone,” Needham quipped.
Even before these enormous discoveries,
the U.S. Geological Survey considered the
hydrocarbon potential of the Levant Basin
to be significant enough to undertake an
assessment of undiscovered oil and gas
resources.
The study, which was released in March
2010, estimated a mean 1.7 billion barrels
of recoverable oil and a mean 122 Tcf
of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin
province.
Now that Noble has discovered over 37
Tcf, just in the Oligo-Miocene reservoirs in
the basin, it’s time to ask what’s on tap for an
encore.
“We’re drilling an exploration well in Israel
called Karish,” Needham said. “After that,
we plan to drill an appraisal well offshore in
Cyprus.
“We’re also looking at a deeper oil play,”
he said. “We hope to drill a well to test that
concept probably late in 2013 or early
2014.”
EXPLORER
Halbouty Award
from page 30
says, “geologists are the greatest people
in the world.”
Who sometimes need to be reminded
why they’re doing this, of course. After all,
even the most skilled and experienced of
geologists have challenging days.
And when that happens, his advice is
to remember two things.
First, remember the basics.
“My advice to anyone in the petroleum
business these days is to understand the
geology, geophysics and engineering
of the play,” he said, “and then develop
it in an environmentally and socially
responsible fashion.”
To those entering the profession, he
says, read the books, build your net,
learn how to “push back,” maintain your
technical skills, remember your employee
may be your boss someday, maintain
balance in your life and support your
profession.”
The second piece of advice:
“Enjoy what you do!”
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38 MAY 2013 WWW.AAPG.ORG