Projects Overview

Gas City Project - Executive Summary

Muirfield Resources Company, founded in 1986, is a privately held oil and gas exploration company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company both owns and also manages interests in 1300 producing wells and 18,000 net mineral acres. Since 1995, a major portion of exploration efforts are directed towards coalbed methane development. Muirfield has identified and area of the Cherokee Basin in Allen and Woodson counties, Southern Kansas, as having a high probability of establishing coalbed methane production similar to other parts of the basin in Southeast Kansas and Northeast Oklahoma. This basin is experiencing an accelerating rate of development of coalbed methane production. Industry Has been encouraged in this development by relatively inexpensive costs compared to production rates and reserves. As many as nine separate coal seams exist which exhibit the potential of commercial methane production. The primary coal horizons of interest lie within the Cherokee Group of Middle Pennsylvanian age, a zone composed of brown and grey shale's, thin limestone, channel sandstones, black shale and coal. Total thickness of the Cherokee varies from slightly more than 200 feet to nearly 500 feet. Primary gas producing Cherokee coals of interest, in descending order are the Mulky, Bevier, Weir-Pittsburg, Riverton and Rowe. Other coalbeds are also producing from the summit, Mulberry and Dawson of the Marmaton section, just above the Cherokee. For over seventy years, methane gas has been widely produced as "shale gas" throughout eastern Kansas and adjacent areas. Recent drilling and logging techniques have verified that this production, in most cases, was actually coalbed methane. In the past ten years , exploration for coalbed methane has been on the increase. Devon Energy, one of the largest independent producers in North America has emerged as the most active operator in the basin. Typical initial producing rates of 20 to 150 Mcfd per well are common with occasional rates of 250 Mcfd. Wells will produce 10 to 100 barrels of water per day initially. As the well is pumped it's rate of water production diminishes while the gas flow rate increases until a pseudo-steady rate is reached. Average gas in place in Cherokee coalbeds has been estimated to be 1.38 Bcf per square mile. Sources indicate a resource base of nearly 10 TCF in all of eastern Kansas. Typical well spacing is eighty or one hundred sixty acres for each well depending on the operator and relative permeability of the producing coalbed. One water disposal well will accommodate ten to twenty gas wells. Detailed geologic mapping is extremely difficult due to the lack of modern electric logs. Through experimentation and trial and error, increased knowledge of completion and simulation techniques is resulting in better completions with higher productivity than in prior years. Obviously, as the local industry continues to climb the learning curve, the results should improve.