Monterey Shale Near Santa Barbara, California

Link here to Oil & Gas Journal. 

Several things attracted me to this story, not least of which I enjoyed many wonderful weekend outings with some nice southern California women -- ah, but that was a long time ago, in another galaxy, far, far away.

Underground Energy Corp., Santa Barbara, Calif., will attempt to complete the Monterey shale at the Chamberlin 3-2 well on the 7,750-acre Chamberlin lease in its Zaca field extension project in Santa Barbara County, Calif.

Some data points:

• Depth: 7,685 feet (somewhat shallower than the Bakken, in general)
• Cost: budgeted for $2.4 million (well below the $7 million to $10 million for Bakken wells)
• Payzone in offset well: 1,700 feet (huge); more than 1,200 feet of continuous Monterey oil
• Typical payzone in this area: 1,100 feet (huge -- the middle Bakken, I believe, is 50 - 100 feet)
• Original Zaca field: 10-acre spacing; 61 wells
• Original Zaca field: average IP -- 200 bopd; EURs > 540,000

Another rig in the area will drill to 4,350 feet (much shallower than the Bakken; and will offset two other wells have produced more than 500,000 bbls of oil.

A bit of competition for the Bakken, it appears, and suggests why some operators, like OXY say they have better prospects in California than North Dakota.

Note: I have no formal training in the oil and gas industry; no formal training in geology; I don't follow California oil industry; and I may have misread the story. Check out the link if you plan to make any investment decisions after reading this post.  I am well-known to make errors. This is presented, again, for my benefit and benefit of readers to try to sort out the Bakken.

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A Note for the Granddaughters

And speaking of long ago, far away:

Buffy, piaknowguy

A Long Time Ago, Waylon Jennings And then he met Jessi:

Storms Never Last, Jessi and Waylon I'm Looking for Blue Eyes, Jessi Colter