WHL Energy Ltd. (WHL Energy) said that, concurrent to completing its geological and reservoir due diligence on the "Home Run" Kansas CBM project, the company has further delineated significant oil reservoirs that have been over-looked and prematurely shut-in by previous operators. The project areas are located on the Missouri side of the prolific Cherokee basin, known for shallow oil saturated sandstones.
For optimum recovery the projects require waterflooding in order to drive the hydrocarbons from the reservoir into the production well bore. The water is introduced by a number of injector wells drilled within the project area on a “five spot pattern” with four production wells for each injector well. The eastern side of the Cherokee basin is estimated to contain between 1.8 and eight billion barrels of oil in place based on published reports from the US geological survey (USGS) and Missouri Department of Natural Resources survey estimates.
Following analysis of the historical data, WHL Energy now have an increased understanding of the characteristics of the project acreage which has demonstrated that there are several oil reservoirs present with much of the previous infrastructure intact. It is expected that WHL Energy will initiate commercial pilots in the area.
About the Union Town and Girard Project
The Uniontown and Girard project covers mineral leases over approximately 45,000 gross acres in Bourbon and Cherokee county, Kansas within the mature Cherokee basin. The current target for development is the shallow gas (75-300 m) potential of the area, although the leases are also held for potential development of coal-bed methane and conventional oil and gas reserves.
There are in excess of 70 wells available for recompletion. With the current low gas price, only five wells are currently producing with stabilized production of in excess of 108 mcf/day. WHL Energy has successfully piloted five wells with proprietary technologies including the Short Radius Stimulation (SRS) and propellant gun technologies with several wells in order to demonstrate via low cost completion techniques (sub $10 per well), the wells can be rapidly brought on line economically.
WHL Energy Chief Executive Officer David Kahn states, “We are extremely pleased by this outcome, this discovery provides a significant reserve base to WHL Energy that was not expected during our initial due diligence phase in Kansas. This has provided the company the ability to take advantage of both rising oil and gas prices, whilst still staying within our stated goals of acquiring low cost, near term production opportunities in the US oil and gas market.”