that runaway well

Here's the public info on that SMD well that went out of control and sprayed thousands of acres with oil.

Numbers in for Wyo. oil rush well: 300 BBL/day
By: MEAD GRUVER
Associated Press
10/29/10 9:50 PM EDT
CHEYENNE, WYO. ? The first official production figures from an oil rush in southeast Wyoming are promising but not earthshaking.

Information from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission shows that an SM Energy Company well 12 miles northeast of Cheyenne produced just under 50,000 barrels of oil from January through July.

More recent numbers aren't available yet, but the well averaged just more than 300 barrels a day over the seven-month period.

That's a good start compared to nearby wells that have produced no more than a couple hundred thousand barrels since being drilled in the early 1990s. It's less than some wells drilled into the booming Bakken Shale in North Dakota, where initial production has been touted at 1,500 barrels a day or more.

Either way, it's the first solid result from a rush by dozens of companies to receive state permission to drill ? and in some cases, begin drilling ? some 160 oil wells in southeast Wyoming over the past year or so.

EOG Resources touched off the rush by drilling a well in northern Colorado a year ago. That well initially produced 1,700 barrels a day, setting off speculation that the Niobrara Shale underlying the region could be made as productive as the Bakken with the right combination of drilling techniques.

The well drilled by Denver-based SM Energy first got widespread attention when it accidentally sprayed oil over 15 acres of ranchland two weeks ago. At SM Energy's request, the commission kept the well's production confidential until this week.

Oil experts in Wyoming say one key for SM Energy is how much money the company has invested in the 13,700-foot horizontal well. Commission supervisor Tom Doll estimated the well's cost at $3 million to $5 million.

"I'm sure that they're recouping their investment at these production rates," Doll said Friday.

He called it a "doggone good well."

The well produced as much as 672 barrels a day over the nine days it was producing in April.

"The key is, where does it stabilize?" said David Mohrbacher, director of the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute at the University of Wyoming.

He said production rates from shale oil typically drop off steeply after the first several weeks or months a well is drilled.

Profitability, he said, depends on long-term production.

The SM Energy well averaged 300 barrels a day nearly every day over three months from May through July, tapering off only slightly during that period.



Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/numbers-in-for-wyo-oil-rush-well-300-bblday-106352413.html#ixzz13rXGvko5