Goodrich Touts Tuscaloosa Marine Success Despite Soft Shale Worries

“The Crosby well has an oil figure of 92 percent, compared with a typical figure of 85 percent for wells in Eagle Ford. Some wells in the Tuscaloosa are as high as 96 percent oil. In one-half the time, it is producing as much as the Bakken formation,” Turnham told Rigzone.

The peak flow of the Crosby well, which was in heavy clay, and therefore represented more of a worst-case scenario for fracking in the Tuscaloosa Marine, was achieved on a 15/64 inch choke to maintain maximum reservoir integrity, and the well was fracked with 25 stages and has about 6,700 feet of usable lateral, Goodrich stated in a February press release.

A rise in Goodrich’s stock price in recent months is being attributed by the Tuscaloosa Trend blog in part to the company’s investment in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, and to its success with the Crosby well.

So, what did Goodrich do so differently from other early players in the Tuscaloosa, or were they just lucky?

It is not just luck. The lateral lengths used, and the distance between them, are among the factors that have been critical to Goodrich’s success, Turnham said.

“Tuscaloosa Marine Shale does have a higher clay content than some formations, so we use a clay stabilizer to basically keep the clay more docile, and we use more proppant. Also, we use engineering practices that have been successful in other formations, like having shorter intervals and 270-foot laterals,” Turnham told Rigzone.

While the Crosby well has been prolific, it is not ideally located within the Tuscaloosa formation. The well is in an area of the Tuscaloosa with the highest clay content, yet it is one of the highest-producing wells there so far, Turnham noted. So, that puts to rest the notion that drilling in the clay-like material limits output.


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