Bossier Formation Research Articles

Operator Executives Share Haynesville Development Strategies

Indigo Natural Resources, Aethon Energy Management, and Rockcliff Energy II are among the most active operators in the revived Haynesville Shale of North Louisiana and East Texas. And most people outside of the region have likely never heard of them. Such is the story of the bulk of the top producers in the dry-gas-rich Haynesville, which differs from its peer group of big shale plays that are led by majors and big independents. While Chesapeake Energy, XTO Energy, and BP each has a presence there, it is the lesser-known privately-owned, largely pure-play operators—with their new completions and midstream partnerships—that have accounted for much of the play’s output increases. Those companies began entering the play a few years ago when many of the bigger operators were turning away from dry gas. The mergers and acquisitions continued through 2018, when, notably, Aethon struck a deal to buy QEP Resources’ Haynesville-Cotton Valley acreage for $735 million and BP more than tripled its Haynesville position through its purchase of BHP Billiton’s US shale assets. Indigo, in particular, over the past 4 years has aggressively leased and acquired acreage in North Louisiana. The company targeted the Louisiana portion of the play because it benefits from the ability to drill north-south with cross-unit laterals and forced pooling, said Frank D. Tsuru, president and chief executive officer of Indigo, during a recent SPE Gulf Coast Section panel discussion of Haynesville executives in Houston. The Houston-based company has amassed 435,000 net acres and, through Momentum Midstream, has “built a fully integrated, very large-scale mid-stream business to complement it,” said Tsuru, who also serves as Momentum’s CEO. Indigo currently produces around 1.3 Bcf/D, up from 200 MMcf/D in 2016, with proved reserves of 4.7 Tcf. Preston Phillips, vice president of acquisitions and divestitures of Dallas-based Aethon, said his company took “a contrarian investment strategy” that involved building a position in Haynesville when it could basically “buy upside for nothing” as others had given up on the play. “Now that we’re a significant player, we will continue to make acquisitions and bolt on to our position,” he said. Aethon currently has 186,000 net acres in the Haynesville consisting of a large position in North Louisiana as well as a less mature position in the Shelby Trough play of East Texas, a portion of which it bought from Rockcliff Energy. Most of its position either has the Bossier formation underneath it or Cotton Valley sands above it, he said. “We’re already doing Bossier development and seeing great success. The Cotton Valley’s got a lot more water, so there’s some cost issues to unlock there, but we’re working hard on it.” Around 70% of the operator’s inventory has been drilled using 7,500-ft and 10,000-ft laterals. “Fortunately, there’s a large number of LNG plants and petrochemical projects that are being developed in the Gulf Coast,” Phillips said. “And that demand is why we think we’re very well positioned being in the Haynesville play relative to the other basins.”

A new Upper Jurassic species of Scenedesmus from the Bossier Formation, Texas, USA

ABSTRACTScenedesmus Meyen 1829 is an extant freshwater representative of the Chlorophyta (Order Chlorococcales, Family Scenedesmaceae). Fossil representatives have been conclusively identified from Lower Cretaceous lacustrine sediments and some are possibly as old as the Middle Jurassic. Specimens clearly attributable to Scenedesmus were encountered in Upper Jurassic Bossier Formation palynology preparations from a proprietary hydrocarbon exploration well in Wood County, Texas, USA. This alga, named Scenedesmus texanus sp. nov., is described herein. Also occurring with Scenedesmus are other freshwater representatives of the Chlorococcales, including Tetrastrum multifilorum and Pediastrum sp. The Bossier Formation Scenedesmus specimens occur in a mixed palynological assemblage consisting of freshwater algae, pollen, spores and a few dinoflagellate cysts. The combined occurrence of these palynomorphs indicates a marginal marine depositional setting with a freshwater influence.

Delineating reservoir fluid variations in the Bossier Formation using an integrated multi-measurement method

Delineating reservoir fluid variations in the Bossier Formation using an integrated multi-measurement method

Slick-Water and Hybrid Fracturing Treatments: Lessons Learned

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 89876, "Slick-Water and Hybrid Fracture Treatments in the Bossier: Some Lessons Learned," by Mukul M. Sharma, SPE and Phani B. Gadde, U. of Texas at Austin; Richard Sullivan, SPE, Richard Sigal, SPE, Robin Fielder, SPE, and David Copeland, SPE, Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; and Larry Griffin, SPE, and Leen Weijers, SPE, Pinnacle Technologies, prepared for the 2004 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, Houston, 26-29 September. To better understand the process of fracturing tight gas sands, a comprehensive data set was gathered and analyzed for the Bossier formation in the Dowdy Ranch field. The bottomhole treating pressures were higher than expected on the basis of the measured stress profiles. Effective fracture lengths derived from pressure-buildup analysis and history matching of production data were significantly shorter than designed fracture lengths (or those predicted from uncalibrated fracture models). The data collected and analyzed provided valuable insight into the performance of water and hybrid fracturing treatments in tight gas formations. Introduction Waterfracs and hybrid fracs are the stimulation treatments used in many low-permeability reservoirs. Typically, improving the performance of gas wells in marginal gas plays requires improvement of fracturing technologies. To ensure that these gas wells remain economically attractive, even at modest gas prices, completion and fracturing practices must be optimized. Research was aimed at improving the performance and reducing the cost of fracture treatments by acquiring and analyzing fracture-treatment data from the Bossier play in east Texas. Six gas wells (data wells) were identified in the Dowdy Ranch field for a detailed analysis of the well and fracture-treatment data before, during, and after a fracture treatment. The full-length paper details data acquired in Anadarko Petroleum Co.’s Anderson No. 2 well, summarizes findings, and presents recommendations for better fracture treatments on the basis of lessons learned.

Jurassic Salt Tectonism Within Mt. Enterprise Fault System, Rusk County, Texas: ABSTRACT

A synthesis of seismic, bore-hole, and gravity data in southeastern Rusk County, Texas, indicates that faulting within the Mt. Enterprise fault system was the result of Jurassic salt tectonism. Faults were developed in response to salt movement and subsequent collapse of the overlying section into areas of salt withdrawal, resulting in the formation of a graben containing no Louann Salt. An abnormally thick Bossier Formation within the graben indicates a Late Jurassic age for significant structural deformation within the fault zone. The potential exists for numerous untested traps within the Jurassic section associated with salt-generated structures along the Mt. Enterprise fault system. End_of_Article - Last_Page 254------------

Location of Gilmer Shelf Margin, Upper Jurassic, East Texas Basin: ABSTRACT

Regional stratigraphic correlations, based on wireline logs, have defined a distinctive sequence of shales within the Bossier Formation. This lower Bossier shale member, of near constant thickness, extends across the East Texas basin into Louisiana. The overlying upper Bossier shale member thickens markedly to the south and east but northward and westward intertongues with Schuler Formation siliciclastics. Below the lower Bossier shale member a shale-dominated sequence with carbonates exists in some parts of the East Texas basin. This Gilmer shale member thickens to over 500 ft (150 m) in Panola and Harrison Counties and Louisiana, but is thin or absent over the Gilmer shelf margin, where lower Bossier shales rest on Gilmer limestone buildups. Across the center of the Eas Texas basin the Gilmer shales average 100-150 ft (30-45 m). The continuation of the conformable, uniform lower Bossier shale member across the basin implies some time equivalence of, at the least, the thicker Gilmer shales with the massive undifferentiated Gilmer/Smackover carbonates within the East Texas basin. The Gilmer shelf margin is situated where this carbonate succession passes laterally into eastward-derived shales; the margin is east-facing and east of the basin depocenter, trending through Upshur, Smith, and Rusk Counties. A subsidiary trend in the Gilmer limestone on the northwestern and western flanks of the basin is controlled by the presence of an underlying Buckner carbonate barrier. Only in the northeast of the basin is the Gilmer shelf margin coincident with earlier shelf edges. This reevaluation of the Gilmer shelf margin presents a major target for future hydrocarbon exploration. End_of_Article - Last_Page 484------------

Late Jurassic Depositional Environments, Louisiana and Arkansas: GEOLOGICAL NOTES

The Upper Jurassic Cotton Valley Group is a sedimentary wedge, pinching northward, under the Gulf Coastal Plain from Texas to Alabama. In northern Louisiana, formations in this group are, in descending order, the Knowles Limestone, the Hico Shale which grades southward into the regressive, massive Terryville Sandstone, and the southward-thickening wedge of shale and limestone comprising the Bossier Formation. These formations grade northward into terrestrial red beds of the Schuler Formation, in Arkansas. Across northern Louisiana, a west-trending, longshore barrier island of (Terryville) sandstone supplied by a delta to the ancestral Mississippi river separated a coastal lagoon (Hico shale) from the open gulf (marine Bossier Formation).

Regional Stratigraphic Analysis of the Cotton Valley Group of the Upper Gulf Coastal Plain

ABSTRACT Lithologic and thickness data on Upper Jurassic rocks of the Cotton Valley group, Upper Gulf Coastal Plain, were interpreted from electric and sample logs, and correlations were established from Arkansas and Louisiana into Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. Units mapped include the total Cotton Valley, the Schuler formation, and the Bossier formation. Maps included are based on isopachs, lithofacies, shale ratios, and vertical variability. Sand in the Schuler is represented by a of map, a slice map of the top thousand feet, and a tripartite sand distribution map. The Bossier formation is a regional wedge of thick black shale merging updip into a fringe of non-marine shale and sand. The Schuler formation overlaps the Bossier. Its downdip aspect is predominantly marine. It thins updip through a transition zone of maximum shale percentage and maximum number of sands into a non-marine section of coarse clastics. It is believed that the Schuler formation was deposited on an unstable shelf flanking the Gulf Coast basin and receiving a supply of clastics from the north and northeast. The North Louisiana Interior Salt Dome basin was separated from the East Texas basin by a shelf of less subsidence in the region of the Sabine uplift. The marine sands of the Schuler formation were presumably deposited by longshore currents carrying clastics westward from a major delta in northeastern Louisiana and western Mississippi. Facies patterns developed on all of the maps bear a definite relationship to the Cotton Valley producing trends in northern Louisiana. FOOTNOTE 1. Based on a dissertation for the degree Master of Science, submitted to the Graduate School Northwestern University, 1954. Presented by title before the association at the St. Louis meeting, April, 1954. End_Page 143------------------------

Regional Stratigraphic Analysis of Cotton Valley Group of Upper Gulf Coastal Plain

Lithologic and thickness data of Upper Jurassic rocks of the Cotton Valley group, Upper Gulf Coastal Plain, were interpreted from electric and sample logs, and selected correlations were carried from Arkansas and Louisiana into Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. Units mapped include the total Cotton Valley, the Schuler formation, and the Bossier formation. Maps included are based on isopachs, lithofacies, shale ratios, and vertical variability. Sand in the Schuler is represented by a of map, a slice map of the top 1,000 feet, and a tripartite sand distribution map. The Bossier formation is a sequence of black shales and sands which may merge updip into a fringe of non-marine shale and sand. The Schuler formation oversteps the Bossier. The Schuler downdip aspect is predominantly marine. It thins updip through a transition zone of maximum shale percentage and maximum number of sands into a sequence of coarse clastic which may be an alternation of marine, deltaic, and continental sediments. It is believed that the Schuler formation was deposited on an unstable shelf flanking the Gulf Coast basin and receiving a supply of clastics from the north and northeast. The North Louisiana Interior Salt-Dome basin was separated from the East Texas basin by a shelf of less subsidence, an area referred to as the Sabine uplift. The marine sands of the Schuler formation presumably were deposited by longshore currents, carrying clastics westward from a major delta in northeastern Louisiana and western Mississippi. Facies patterns developed on all of the maps bear a definite relationship to the Cotton Valley producing trends in northern Louisiana.

Upper Jurassic of Northeastern Texas

The entirely subsurface Upper Jurassic of northeastern Texas includes, in ascending order, the Eagle Mills, Smackover, Buckner, Bossier, and Schuler formations; the last two constitute the Cotton Valley group. The stratigraphy of the units in northeastern Texas is described. Present evidence suggests that, in the East Texas basin, the Buckner formation passes downdip into the upper part of the Smackover formation. The Bossier formation is thinner than in Louisiana and contains oolitic limestone beds that suggest deposition in a sea that was shallower than in northwestern Louisiana. The Schuler formation in Texas, as in Arkansas and Louisiana, consists of two members, each of which occurs in a marine and a non-marine facies. The lower, or Shongaloo, member in Texas is similar lithologically to occurrences farther east, but its change of facies is farther updip than in Arkansas and Louisiana. The Dorcheat member is similar in general lithologic character to its occurrences in Arkansas and Louisiana but in Texas it almost entirely lacks zones of spherulitic siderite that are characteristically developed farther east. Zones of this material are reported to indicate intervals of prolonged weathering in the Coal Measures of England. Absence of the siderite in the Dorcheat of Texas suggests that deposition was more continuous. Several species of Ostracoda from the Schuler formation are illustrated.

Stratigraphy of Cotton Valley Beds of Northern Gulf Coastal Plain

The Upper Jurassic Cotton Valley beds comprise an entirely subsurface sequence of sandstone, shale, and limestone in southern Arkansas, northern Louisiana, northeastern Texas, central Mississippi, and western Alabama. It is herein demonstrated that this sequence, originally defined as a formation, contains two units of formational rank which comprise the Cotton Valley group. The lower of the two formations is herein named the Bossier formation. It consists of dark gray shale and sandstone in north-central Louisiana and southern Arkansas, where it attains a thickness of 1,900 feet, and passes eastward into redbeds in the Monroe uplift of northeastern Louisiana. It extends slightly into southern Arkansas where it is overlapped by the upper formation of the Cotton Valley gro p, herein named the Schuler formation. This formation comprises two members differentiated by lithology and color, and exceeds 2,300 feet in maximum thickness. The lower member, herein named the Shongaloo member, consists of nearshore red shale, sandstone, and conglomerate and equivalent offshore fossiliferous gray shale, limestone, sandstone, and basal conglomerate. The upper member, herein named the Dorcheat member, comprises nearshore pastel, varicolored shale and sandstone, and equivalent offshore fossiliferous gray shale, sandstone, and limestone. Paleontological information contributed by R. W. Imlay indicates that the Bossier formation is middle and upper Kimmeridgian, and that the Schuler formation may be Portlandian and Tithonian.