The Energy Consulting Group

Business strategy for upstream oil and gas producers and service companies

The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) is a light, tight oil play that straddles Mississippi and Louisiana (see Exhibit 1*).  It is being evaluated and developed by several oil and gas firms, including Halcon Resources, Goodrich Petroleum, Encana, Sanchez Energy, etc.  The play is described by E&P executives as being the geological equivalent of the Eagle Ford in south Texas, though it is deeper, and the formation characteristics do vary somewhat.  That said, many of the same drilling and completion methodologies, suitably modified, are being used in the TMS.

Production results have been mixed, as the industry learns how to efficiently drill and effectively complete TMS wells.  Exhibit 2 illustrates the variability of well results to date.  Our work clearly indicates that the play, even at this early stage, can be geographically segmented based on economic prospectivity, and by extension we can quantitatively value each of the main acreage holders based on the location and amount of Tuscaloosa acreage positions.

Our assessment of where current drilling, fracking,and testing activity is taking place in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale is also presented on maps below.  It is apparent from these maps that most of the TMS activity is concentrated in the northeast quadrant of the play, with most of that activity taking place in Amite and Wilkinson counties, Mississippi. We have also overlaid well performance over the activity maps, and it appears to us that the industry is currently clustering most of its efforts around demonstrated strong production versus more broadly delineating the play.

* The exhibits are simply thumbnails for much higher resolution images, so click on the images to directly call up the more detailed versions.

(Note: this information is provided on a "as is" basis and should not be used for trading or other business purposes.)

Exhibit 1 Location Map for the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS)	Exhibit 2 Well results presented in comparison to each other.
Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Activity Overview:  Week of Sept. 20, 2014 Wells That Are Drilling, Fracking, and Testing	Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Activity Detail:  Week of Sept. 20, 2014 Wells That Are Drilling, Fracking, and Testing

Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Activity Overview:  Week of Sept. 14, 2014 Wells That Are Drilling, Fracking, and Testing

Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Activity Detail:  Week of Sept. 14, 2014 Wells That Are Drilling, Fracking, and Testing