Queen City Sand Play
Introduction
The Queen City Trend has long been a prolific oil and gas production fairway. The normal portion of the trend is characterized by sand rich deltaic deposits in south Texas. Recently, a new play has developed in the shale prone, down-dip areas of the Gulf Coast (Figure 1).
"Early players in the Gulf Coast did not focus on tite sands."
The tite gas play has been dominated by one player – Mestena Oil and Gas at Mestena Grande field. Their story serves as a guide to success, and it is surprising that more companies are not attempting to emulate their success. Early players in the Gulf Coast did not focus on tite sands. This is because so many sands have bottom-water drives, and it is easy to frac into the water “leg” below the gas “cap.” This problem can be managed with good completion practices.
The play has a positive aspect by having many old well bores that are available to capture and work over. These re-completions are less expensive than new grass-roots drilling and provide a nice canvas to paint a profitable picture.
To summarize, the key features to keep in mind about this play are:
- The play is vast and under tested.
- The advent of sand propped fracs and increased productivity of both old and new wells.
- The play is dominated by only one player.
- There are many idle well bores with pay behind pipe, which can be used to re-complete and re-activate.
- The average Queen City well, at shallow depths, will ultimately yield about 300 MMCFGE, making the play economic under almost any price scenario. A modest well yields better than a 100% IROR with $4.25 gas, and takes less than 1 year to payout. The Undiscounted Profit to Investment Ration (P/I) is better than 4:1.