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Production Facilities Development Continues In Wyoming’s Hot New Gas Play by Maretta Tubb, Managing Editor Pipeline & Gas Journal In southwestern Wyoming, a rich natural gas play in Sublette County, near the town of Pinedale, is paying off for a number of operators. To date, there have been 136 wells drilled in the Jonah Field , discovered by Casper, WY-based McMurry Oil Company. The majority of the gas from Jonah Field is gathered and transported by Jonah Gas Gathering Company, which is a Wyoming partnership operated and partially owned by McMurry Oil. Operators have proved up estimated recoverable reserves of 1.5 TCF of natural gas in the Jonah Field. Until recently, existing pipeline and compression facilities limited production to approximately 200 MMcf/d on the Jonah Gas Gathering System. This changed last month when Jonah Gas Gathering’s new 50.5-mile, 20-inch pipeline came online Sept. 1. The new natural gas pipeline, which has a capacity of 320 MMcf/d, extends from Jonah Field to Opal, WY, where it connects with the Williams Field Services gas processing facility. From Opal, the gas is marketed into either the Kern River Pipeline, Northwest Pipeline, or the Colorado Interstate Gas Pipeline. Jonah Gas awarded Bluewater Constructors Inc. (BWC), of Houston, and Casper, WY, a contract to construct the grassroots Bird Canyon natural gas compressor station in Sublette County and install a third compressor at the existing Luman station. The contract included civil, mechanical, and piping for two Caterpillar 3608/Ariel JDG-4 compressor units at the Bird Canyon Station and the installation of a third 3,000 hp Caterpillar 3612/Ariel JDC-4 unit at the Luman station. Jack Rizzo, vice president and general manager of Bluewater Constructors, said construction of the Bird Canyon station and compressor addition at Luman is now complete. The Luman station, which began operating in March, is now being fitted with gas cooling facilities. A spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management, which approved construction of Jonah Gas Gathering’s recently completed pipeline and compressor stations, said the new facilities are designed to transport gas from Jonah Field wells operated by McMurry Oil, BP Amoco, Ultra Petroleum, CNG and Western Gas. Background Jonah Field, currently considered one of the hottest natural gas plays in the Rockies, was originally discovered in 1975 by Davis Oil. Although early drilling produced encouraging gas shows, completion and stimulation problems caused Davis Oil to deem the three wells drilled in the field non-commercial. Over the next several years the field changed hands several times. Finally, in 1991, McMurry Oil acquired an option to purchase the property, which by then included three wells and 25,000 leased acres. Shortly after acquiring the property, McMurry Oil raised needed cash to test the wells by selling interest in the leases to both Colorado-based Fort Collins Consolidated Royalties Inc., and Nerd Enterprises Inc., owned by Mick McMurry, son of McMurry Oil founder, W. N. McMurry. Anxious to test the wells, the company mobilized crews to the site and constructed a 10-mile, four-inch O.D. gathering line to link the three wells to Williams Field Service’s gas gathering system. Even before the original three wells tested at 2 MMcf/d, which was well above what Martin had hoped for, McMurry Oil Company President John Martin was convinced the field held the potential as a huge new gas play. His belief in the potential of the gas play led him to acquire lease acreage in and around the 25,000 acre Jonah Field discovery, increasing the company’s total to more than 100,000 acres. Nevertheless, not everyone was convinced. It took four more wells, including the Jonah Field discovery well that produced 4 MMcf/d with 85 barrels of condensate, to generate industry interest. One of the companies that acquired interest in the field was Snyder Oil Corporation of Fort Worth, TX, purchasing 40,000 net acres in 1994. Two years later, MCN Corporation, Detroit, MI, purchased one-third of the McMurry Group’s interest, and funded a 20-well drilling program that resulted in increasing production from 12 MMcf/d to 80 MMcf/d. Snyder Oil later sold a 50 percent working interest in its Jonah Field holdings to Amoco Production Company. A later agreement between the companies gave Amoco operatorship of some of the Snyder acreage in the field. Lagging Infrastructure A lagging infrastructure, coupled with the dramatic increase in production from Jonah Field, has kept Jonah Gas Gathering busy. When development action heated up in 1996, an existing 8-inch line was replaced with a 12-inch O.D. line having 100 MMcf/d capacity. The following year, a 23-mile, 16-inch diameter line was added that connects with Williams Field Services, Questar, Western Gas Resources and FMC pipelines and processing facilities. That line increased the daily transportation capacity to 175 MMcf/d. The company also increased the size of its four-inch O.D. gathering line, (installed to test the first three wells drilled), with a 12-inch O.D. line and purchased an existing Burlington Resources pipeline along the Pinedale anticline, to export 25 MMcf/d along that route. Other operators anxious to exploit newly found reserves have constructed pipelines as well. In 1997, Western Gas Resources installed its own 12-inch diameter pipeline from the Jonah Field to its Granger gathering system. That line is currently transporting approximately 30 MMcf/d of Jonah Field production. Both McMurry Oil and BP Amoco have drilling programs under way in Jonah Field at this time and more drilling is planned. McMurry Oil’s plans include a recently permitted well, which is planned to test the Frontier Formation at a total depth of more than 20,000 feet. All wells to date in Jonah have involved completions in the Lance and Upper Mesaverde formation, at depths ranging from 8,000 to 12,000 feet. BP Amoco recently completed a high volume Lance producer that is over four miles east of the nearest production in the Jonah Field. McMurry plans more drilling as well on offsetting acreage as soon as BLM approval is obtained. P&GJ |
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