Corpus Christi Geological Society

Life in the Patch

May 2011

“A Wild Goose Chase on the Texas Gulf Coast”

The Seabreeze Field had been there a long time and had been thoroughly drilled; so everyone thought! The location of Seabreeze Field is in Southeast Texas in Chambers County (Figure 1.) Finally following a letter request to management, we had acquired a 3D data set over the area and the hunt was back on. I loved to goose hunt on the Texas Gulf Coast; some of the best goose hunting in the world, so the naming scheme for newly found prospects on the new 3D became names of different kinds of wild geese. The naming scheme was logical and so the “wild goose hunt” began. The basic trapping structure of the main field was a north- south trending four way anticlinal closure downthrown to a large north –south trending down to the east listric normal fault. One well, on top and in the middle of the structure, had already produced over 4 BCF from the Frio Nodosaria blanpedi (Seabreeze F-4 Series) and the assumption was that the sands and structure were drained. The basic Field Stratigraphy and Biostratigraphic nomenclature is outlined in Figure 2. When we received the data and loaded it on our new Geoquest workstations, Greg Bunk and I were both panning through the data volume vertically and horizontally hunting for structural and stratigraphic complexity variation and that is when the “1st big goose landed in the spread of past well decoys”. The structure was faulted by another fault, that no one had recognized in past structural interpretations, running enechelon to the large north –south trending down to the East fault. The bright spot that showed up on the upthrown side of that fault was amazing and there was no significant amplitude on the downthrown side where the older well had produced several BCF in the past. When I found out that the acreage was in jeopardy of being lost, I ran down the hall to our district manager and told him we needed to save the lease because it looked like there was a great prospect there to be drilled immediately. The company almost immediately got a dozer out there and scraped of the location and the hunt was on. We brought one of our Offshore guys into supervise the well since there was a very good chance we would find something really good. The well was spudded very soon after building location. My mud logger called in to the house early in the AM one morning as we drilled into the Frio Nodosaria Sand. The “wild goose had set it wings and landed”!! His voice was shaking. We had max gas of around 5000 units with severe mud cut to 12.5 PPG and the well was definitely talking to us. In his shaking voice he simply said “I don’t know if we can hold this one”! The Greater Canadian wild goose was literally trying to take off! I had named this prospect Nodosaria “Greater”. After a couple of days of fighting the well and slowly building mud weight the well (“the Greater Wild Goose”) was finally back under control. All the guys on location did a great job of keeping the “goose from taking off”. I had lined up the e- logging out of Liberty, Texas through Schlumberger and I met the logging crew in the Field to get a “triple combo” over the section we had encountered. Even though we had plenty of mud weight to hold the zone, the well and sand had still talked to us strongly indicating that the sand was going to be something special as far as rock properties and pressure. The recently trained e-logging engineer was a young lady from China and we communicated in broken English and sketched pictures as we prepared to log. In Figure 3 is what we encountered and what a “special wild goose” it was. As it came across the logging screen; the image was etched forever in my memory! 70’ of net gas /condensate pay with 1000 ohm- meters resistivity and an average of 30% density porosity; a magnificent Blocky Frio distributary channel full with 50 ‘ net pay and 20’ of net pay in stringers of an overbank crevasse splay. Wow, we had really bagged a trophy wild goose on that shot. Oh, and as the 3D indicated, it was a new virgin pressure fault block.

After getting the pipe set to bottom it was time to complete the well. My Company sent me to Southeast Texas to witness and observe the perforation of the high quality Frio Channel Sand. It was a very cold day on the Gulf Coastal Plain hovering just above freezing. We confirmed the perforation of the pipe by the sound conveyed up the pipe through conduction with headphones. The well was opened up and the fluid the well was loaded with began to unload and flow through the pipe going to the testing unit. The unloading fluid was warm through the pipe to my hands and then the gas condensate “hit” and made it to the surface and almost froze my hand to the pipe as the “cool down affect” occurred. In fact I called the office just as it actually started to snow in Southeast Texas and let them know that the hydrocarbons were to the surface with a really dramatic cool down affect.

The testing was accomplished and the technician generated charts and graphs and descriptions of the well’s ability to flow hydrocarbons. The technician generated a calculated absolute open flow (CAOF) value and brought me the results. He looked at it and wasn’t sure he had performed the calculation correctly and went through the process again. He brought it back and said “no this is the correct value” but also said he had never seen one this high. Most of the time onshore the CAOF values are between 2 MMCFD and say 80 MMCFD. I had seen a CAOF value for a Miocene well offshore once for 450 MMCFD. The CAOF for this well calculated at 994039 MCFD (Figure 4.). In other words if this sand could have been brought to the surface and flowed unimpeded without constraint by a certain diameter of pipe to the atmosphere it would have flowed at almost 1BCFD; almost unbelievable flow characteristics; a near perfect sandstone reservoir; an example of some of the best subsurface sand on the planet.

Yep, this was some kind of trophy goose!

As time went on, my team and I kept hunting and drilled several other wells. Most were successful; it was a good hunt. In Figure 5 and Figure 6 are 2 more special e-logs and again these prospects were named after wild geese. The Oryx Sun Fee wells were drilled on an unusual piece of real estate. The manager of our district asked if there was another immediate idea to drill like the 1st one. I said yes, and we proceeded to get ready to drill another prospect. When land check out the property, we discovered that we owned it “lock, stock, and barrel”. We owned the surface and the minerals, and our income interest was somewhere around 97%; again almost unbelievable. There was another untested fault block to be drilled. There were also some “bright spots” at the top of the FRIO in the Marginulina as well as the good looking Frio Nodosaria “bright spot”. We drilled through the upper Frio sands and stopped to set pipe right above the Nodosaria. When I logged the well there were some really nice thinner gas sands in the Marginulina, section as we had predicted. When pipe was being set, the cement flash set up inside the pipe well above the newly discovered sands; so we capped the well(the White Fronted Prospect) and skidded the rig slightly on the location pad and spudded the well again knowing that we already had pay to drill out to and perforate later. Guess you could say we had that “goose in the bag”. The hunt was back on. We drilled through the Marg sands again, logged them and set pipe. Then we drilled into our main Frio Nodosaria target and we found the “big sand” again. This time we held it better from the start. We logged the well and Figure 6 shows you what we found. We filled the Frio Distributary Channel Sand up again with 48’ of net gas/condensate pay, but the crevasse splay stringers were wet this time; apparently further down the Paleo structure of the original trapping anticline. Still a very nice wild goose! We set pipe and from the annotations on the log you can see what a great well it made. We then drilled out the other well with the flash set cement and also made another Excellent well.

All I can say is “what a wild goose chase that was but we successfully bagged our game!” Thank you Sun-Oryx for sponsoring a great and profitable hunt. Those were great times in the Oil Patch!

Sincerely:

Dennis A. Taylor; Geologist, Owner, & President
Metate Minerals LTD
Corpus Christi, Texas

Figure 1 & 2

Figure 3

Figure 4. — Scout Ticket: SBLD Co. #12(Greater Prospect); CAOF of 994039 MCFD

Figure 5

Figure 6

March 2011

Longhorn Mountain near Meers, Oklahoma

Late September 1983 – Field Notes.

I am so sick of the damn rattlesnakes. It is 9 a.m. and I am sitting on the ridgeline at the top of Longhorn Mountain eating my lunch just to calm my nerves. I am supposed to be mapping out contacts on this Ordovician rock pile. In the distance far below me, I can see the refuge of my car. I have already encountered four rattlesnakes during the half-hour hike to my perch. At least back home in Mississippi, the snakes played by the rules. There is a smell to the cottonmouth, especially the big ones. I remember my parents and grandparents sniffing the air and speaking of an area as “snakey.” Growing up, I don’t ever remember being surprised by a water moccasin. But these western

A strike-ready, coiled
rattler that’s buzzing
has stopped moving,
except for that devilish
little tail. Miss that
detail and the victim is
just as prone to leap
onto the snake as away
from it.

rattlesnakes - they love surprises. Yes, they rattle, but sometimes after they’ve made the first strike. And then there is that buzzing of the rattle itself – so high pitched, so startling, so loud, that quite often there is absolutely no sense of the direction of the imminent danger. A strike-ready, coiled rattler that’s buzzing has stopped moving, except for that devilish little tail. Miss that detail and the victim is just as prone to leap onto the snake as away from it.

I had been leaping aplenty that Saturday morning and I was done for the day. So I sat for far too long. I pondered the beauty of the area and the many other Ordovician limestone hills jutting up from the prairie. I remembered the distant tornado I’d seen from that very spot. I thought about how to hike back to the car. I anticipated the enormous hamburgers served at the Meers eatery. Far to the south, there was the quiet safety of my campsite in the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. Tonight…now more likely, this afternoon…I would enjoy the solitude of the campground often invaded with buffalo. Hopefully, nearby Fort Sill won’t be conducting tank and artillery practice into the wee hours. And on Sunday morning, I will awaken to the gentle sounds of Kate Smith crooning hymns over the loudspeakers of Holy City…until next time...

The Happy Mapper

November 2010

THE LAND THAT WILL ALWAYS BE WATER

Humble Oil & Refining Company (now Exxon-Mobil)
vs.
The State of Texas, Pure Oil Company & Sun Oil Company
(1947-1948)

During the period 1947-48 Humble Oil (now part of Exxon-Mobil) filed suit against the State of Texas, Pure Oil Company, and Sun Oil Company declaring certain state designated water tracts were originally land that belonged to the Armstrong Ranch that Humble Oil had under oil and gas lease in Kennedy County, Texas.

Humble’s position was that the land eroded away by virtue of high and low tides over a period of many years. The area in question is, today, that portion of the ranch shoreline and Laguna Madre approximately 13 miles long and 5 miles wide lying due east of the town of Armstrong. The area is in the shape of a rectangle approximately 50 miles South of Corpus Christi via the Intercoastal Canal.

The Sun & Pure Oil companies had leased the State tracts from the State of Texas and drilled several wells as limited producers. The field was called Mesquite-Rincon.

Bill Dougherty in Corpus Christi was the District Manager for Humble. He was hiring crews to conduct surface core drilling in this contested area to prove that the land under water was a part of Armstrong Ranch. I joined the work force which was already in progress in the summer of 1948.

Dougherty told me Fred Jacobs would come by and pick me up the next day. It had been raining for several days and when we arrived at the gate off of Highway 77 just south of the town of Armstrong, we reached about 2 miles toward camp. We came to the sand dunes and gulleys between them with water 2-4 feet deep. It was pitch dark by this time. We left our gear and started walking and wading. He said it will take us about 4 hours. When we get to the top of the sand dunes be careful because the rattle snakes always go to high ground to avoid the water. He said you go ahead and lead because the snakes usually strike the second person. I said, “No, you go first, Fred, since you know the way and I’ll just have to take my chances.”

We finally reached camp about 2 a.m. and hit the bunks. The next morning at breakfast, we sat down to eat. Someone was helping my plate with scrambled eggs and what looked like sausage. Then they began passing around bacon, more sausage, etc. It became quite and as I looked up everyone was looking at me and grinning. Finally, it dawned on me that it was not sausage on my plate. It was mountain oysters. My initiation and welcome to the camp.

The equipment consisted of open hull self driven tractors called “snow weasels.” They were light weight and worked very well in the shallow waters which varied from 6 inches to 2 feet deep. The camp was constructed of tents with bunks for about 30 people, a cook’s shack, and an office building. Ben Stanley was the boss, assisted by Ted McFarland in the office, and Hank Wyenken who was known as a tough field boss. Hank did art work for the Corpus Christi Geological Society Bulletin at one time. His well-known sketching of the sand dunes and wild grasses was used for several years.

Humble employed a man by the name of Louis Rawalt. This man was most unusual in that he was an inventor and beachcomber. The tools we used were 8-foot long, 2-inch clear plastic tubes. As one end of the tube was placed in the water, Rawalt rigged up the compression on the snow weasel’s motor and as the tube was forced downward through the soft mud and sand it would slowly suck the core up the tube. After the core tube was full it was pulled up and the compression was reversed and a neat core was pushed out on boards, cut in half and logged.

Later on, Ted McFarland asked if I would like to help him in the office by drawing cross-sections of the formations. I readily accepted, although I was going to miss the rest of the guys who were a lot of fun to be with. I guess you could say this cross-section work was the beginning of my career in geology.

One afternoon after Hank, our boss, had gone back to camp, we ran up on a large school of 10-15 pound bull redfish. The fish had been caught in shallow water during low tide and were trying to find deeper water. We were driving our weasels at around 5-7 miles an hour chasing those redfish, leaning over the side with our 16 inch Stilson wrenches, clubbing the fish to stun them. The weasel behind would stop and pick up the stunned fish. Well, as it turns out, Hank coming back from camp to check on us, saw what we were doing. He made us work 2 hours longer that day. After I started working on cross sections in the office, the guys told me Hank became even tougher. I think some of the guys deserved it because they got a little lazy on the job.

While I was working on this project, Humble flew daily flights over the area taking aerial photographs attempting to prove there were intermittent periods of dry land and water. Though I was with the work crew only a short time, I never saw any dry land as it was continuously under water. At the end of summer 1948, I left to go back to college. I learned later that the Judge ruled in favor of the State of Texas etal. Also that Humble had spent nearly $4 million dollars on the project, a handsome sum of money in those days.

Barnard P. Dietz - 3/8/08

October 2010

Field Notes: Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, Chile: March 15, 1993 – From the Field…

The three of us trekked across the faces of the thickly bedded sands for over an hour to what reasonably appeared to be the crest of the hill. But once there, looking across the valley, the terrain revealed the upland was a spectacular syncline. This wave of strata was the huge Cerro Torro syncline, a giant north-to-south trending warp of the earth in the foothills of the Andes. From the ridge, we looked eastward into a valley thick with small trees in the deep axis of the fold. The flocks of tiny dark birds squawked amongst the cover and flew in coveys about the forest. These were Andean parakeets, not really rare in Patagonia, but an exotic and enjoyable distraction for Houston flatlanders.

To the west we looked up to the Andes, the granite pinnacles of the Torres del Paine. A dark discoloration in the face of one of the towers resembled a caballero on horseback. It provided a ready and recognizable landmark in the National Park referred to as “Chile’s Yellowstone.” Above and behind the Towers gleamed the Andean Ice Sheet. This mass of alpine ice feeds the mountain glaciers along the tip of South America. The ice sheet also feeds the wind. As air cools on the ice and warms in the Argentine Pampas, the dense cold air moves furiously eastwards towards the warm updraft. Here in the Parque, afternoon winds commonly exceeded 75 mph. (A measurement of the wind later would peg a meter at 100 mph.) Having arrived at the tip of South America in March, winter was approaching in Patagonia. We were prepared for cold and wet with GoreTex gear, interestingly “Patagonia”-brand, but were ill-equipped for the wind. In the coming weeks, some measured sections would be constructed while lying down, with one person yelling out a geologic description to another who recorded bed thickness, grain size, texture, etc.

The wind picked up ferociously in the afternoon and there on the edge of that syncline we were posed with a problem of very personal nature. In fact, it was the call of nature. After drinking copious amounts of water while hiking, how does a man relieve himself in a 70 mph wind? One would think that a trajectory directly downwind would provide the best solution. It was soon discovered that a stance with your back to the wind produces significant turbulence downwind and random “back eddies” making the waterproof GoreTex even more valuable. Through trial and error that first day, it was determined that a side-wind stance, surrendering all modesty to friends and nature, made for the most hygienic and efficient solution.

Beside the wind, the second predicament quickly followed when we needed to take strike and dip measurements. Three geologists, from three universities, had three methodologies for taking dip measurements. Once the methodology was settled, the iconic Brunton pocket transit was produced. However, after several tries at taking strike and dip, three frustrated scientists realized that their Brunton was useless. The pull of the South Pole was so downward on the compass needle that the north tip stuck against the glass. We were simply too close to the South Magnetic Pole. In the evening, we would need to take apart our compasses and weight the needle in order for it to remain horizontal in the device. “Fixing” our Brunton was but one more challenge of field work in one of the most rugged and beautiful places on the planet…Next time, snakes!

Anonymous

September 2010

THE CIRCULAR COUNTOURS – AN OIL FIELD?

The Discovery of Maude Traylor Field
Calhoun County, Texas
(The Rest of the Story)

In Spring 1953 I joined Republic Natural Gas Company located in the Wilson Building in Corpus Christi, Texas. Republic’s District Geologist was Ralph Beeker who was in charge of the Exploration Office. Wallace Graham, a geologist, was already on board working the Frio Trend looking for prospects. Beaker assigned me to the Wilcox Trend. I began a regional map covering the entire trend.

Later, in about 1954, our company moved to the Petroleum Building located just north of the post office and the Exploration Office was consolidated with Republic Natural Gas Company’s Drilling and Engineering Departments. Sam McCord was in charge of the latter two departments.

In early 1955 Wallace Graham came up with a prospect in Calhoun County, Texas. He showed it to me. It looked unusual and I was a little taken back by its simplicity. We talked about it and came up with the idea that Texaco and Humble Oil most likely had used seismic to locate an anomaly. On investigating, we learned that Humble thought it was where they drilled their dry hole. Texaco also drilled where they thought it was. (Republic Natural Gas did not then have a budget for seismic.) So we figured there must be a high somewhere close but difficult to pin down. Wallace thought it must between these two wells, both of which had shows in the Melbourne Formation, were relatively flat with each other and both cut a fault.

Ralph Beeker was sold on the prospect, in fact thought it was good enough to initiate a farmout from Humble. A lease broker by the name of Colle Faulk was called in and told to ask for the farmout in his name.

Meantime, Beeker takes this prospect to Republic’s headquarter offices in Dallas. The Exploration people looked at the prospect with a smirk on their faces and said: “That’s a funny looking oil field.” After they turned it down, Beeker came back and told Wallace Graham. Wally was dismayed by the rejection.

Sometime later, Republic’s Vice President of Exploration came down to visit the Corpus office. Wallace, still ardently believing in the prospect, again showed the prospect. Since nothing had changed as far as geology was concerned, Dallas personnel again refused the prospect. When they left, Wally went into Beeker’s office and threw the map across Beeker’s desk and said: “This is the best damn prospect that’s come out of this office since I have been here.” Colle Faulk has obtained the farmout, so what are we going to do with it? Beeker replied: “Wally, I guess you best help him get rid of it.”

Wallace later told me that Colle Faulk, the lease broker who took the farmout from Humble, asked him to meet one night in the Plaza Hotel. Colle wanted to sell part of his interest to a couple of investors who were coming in from Houston. Colle invited Wallace to sit in and help him make the sale. Colle and Wallace began reviewing the prospect for the investors. Suddenly, in the middle of the presentation, Wally exclaims loudly: “Colle, don’t sell this interest. The well is running high to the Humble and Texaco wells. You don’t want to sell this.” The two investors looked at each, obviously suspecting they were being conned by two “slick” oilmen. But Colle persisted, trying to make his pitch to the investors. And Wallace persisted as well, intermittently pleading with Colle not to sell.

Unfortunately, I never learned whether the investors bought Colle’s interest or not.

Thereafter, I noticed Wally was in and out of the office quite a lot, as he was out trying to sell the deal. Finally, Layton Brown Drilling Company took the deal and drilled the discovery well of Maude Traylor Field. Wallace was extremely happy about that. Shortly thereafter Wallace came into my office and said: “My accountant tells me I am working for peanuts and that I could be making much more money as an independent geologist.” That’s how Wally took up the work of an independent.

Later, Wallace moved back to the Wilson Building where he set up his office as an independent geologist. A great guy and fun to be around, Wally was always happy and laughing – and he loved to tease. We had especially great times together at the annual geological field trips. Trips were mostly all South to the Rio Grande Valley across into Victoria, Mexico to study the Edwards and Cretaceous formations and others. We had great sponsors – Bob Smith with Schlumberger, Charles Jacobs with Halliburton and the person always in charge of entertainment was Ned Phillips with PGAC-Atlas Logging.

At least this is the way I remember it, some 53 years later.

Barnard P. Dietz - 3/8/08

Last Updated December 12th, 2011
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