2018 Update on the Emerging Rogersville Shale Play in Kentucky and West Virginia

Abstract

The 2013 Bruin Exploration #1 Silvia Young well, Lawrence County, Kentucky, was the first well to target the Cambrian Rogersville Shale as an unconventional reservoir. Speculation on the success of this well quickly spread through the industry, resulting in a regional oil and gas leasing boom in 2014 and 2015 across eastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia. Four additional Rogersville wells were drilled over the next 18 months; the Cabot Oil & Gas #50 Amherst Industries in Putnam County, West Virginia, the Horizontal Tech Energy #572360 EQT Production in Johnson County, Kentucky, the Chesapeake Appalachia #LAW-1 Janet Stephens and #LAW-1 JH Northup Estate wells in Lawrence County, Kentucky. The most recent Rogersville well drilled was the Bruin Exploration #1H Walbridge, a horizontal well completed in the Rogersville with a 27-stage hydraulic fracture treatment. Logs and completion information from the #1H Walbridge were released in May of 2018. This well was tested for 68 days in early 2017, with average flowback rates of 21 BOPD, 797 MCFGD, and 2,494 BWPD. Total production volumes during testing were 54.2 MMCFG, 1,416 BO, and 169,571 BW. Based on these results, this well was temporarily plugged in mid-2017. Bruin is continuing to evaluate options for this well. Other recently released data include both the logs and the 2015-2017 production data from the Cabot Oil & Gas #50 Amherst Industries well (as of this writing, the only Rogersville well put on production), as well as limited records (GR and completion info) from Horizontal Tech Energy #572360 EQT Production well. Total dry gas production through December 2017 from the vertical Rogersville completion in the Cabot well was 340 MMCF. Gas production declined from an initial monthly rate of 67.4 MMCF in May 2015 to 2.8 MMCF in September 2017. Although no new Rogersville wells have been permitted since September 2015, none of these six initial wells have been plugged and abandoned, signifying the possibility of future Rogersville Shale exploration and/or production activity.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90335 © 2018 AAPG 47th Annual AAPG-SPE Eastern Section Joint Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 7-11, 2018