What's UP on the Pinedale Anticline

Stephen Kneller, Robert W. McDermott, and Sally G. Zinke. Ultra Petroleum Corp, 304 Inverness Way, Suite 295, Englewood, CO 80112, phone: 303-645-9801, [email protected]

The combined Pinedale Anticline and Jonah fields are emerging as the new giant for U.S. Natural Gas Production. Ultra Petroleum Corp. through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ultra Resources Inc. is very active in the development of this world class field. Ultra operates the largest portion and is the largest interest owner on Pinedale. Additionally, we are the third largest operator in that Jonah Field. From very modest beginnings, Ultra has utilized a strong Geological and Geophysical basis to develop the model for the play that has been used in what to date has been the highly successful development of this resource. Since the acquisition of the initial 3D on the Mesa area in 1999, Ultra has been using an industry leading 3D data set to guide all location selection decisions on the anticline. Utilizing this data, Ultra has drilled or participated in nearly 200 successful wells on the anticline. During this same period only 4 wells were plugged, all for mechanical reasons. The second component to the success at Pinedale is the evolving completion techniques driven by knowledge and extensive experimentation. These new completions result in shorter times to production at lower costs per Mcf of reserves and improved performance. Assessment of the total resource available is ongoing. Current OGIP estimates for Jonah exceed 13 TCF while the numbers for Pinedale now exceed 40 TCF. The real question is how much is recoverable and at what well density will the fields need to be developed to achieve this.