(WO) — Empire Petroleum Corp. has completed a 21,006-ft re-entry and subsurface evaluation of the Wakefield-Harrison GU B #1 well in Madison County, Texas, advancing its deep-gas development program in the emerging Western Haynesville play.
The company re-entered the legacy well, originally drilled in 1959 and subsequently deepened twice, and drilled, underreamed and cleaned out the wellbore to 21,006 ft measured depth and 20,949 ft true vertical depth. Empire then ran a modern open-hole logging suite and recovered sidewall cores, with gas and liquids shows recorded across the logged interval.
According to Empire, the operation represents the deepest modern subsurface evaluation in the Western Haynesville completed with full open-hole logs and sidewall cores. The company said logging and coring operations were conducted at temperatures reaching 434°F.
The Fort Trinidad field was historically developed to depths of approximately 10,000 ft. The latest operation provided subsurface data across roughly 11,000 ft of deeper section, including more than 4,000 ft evaluated in open hole.
Empire spent approximately $4.4 million on the re-entry and evaluation by utilizing the existing wellbore. The company contrasted that with reported costs of $30 million to $45 million for new ultra-deep wells being drilled and completed by other Western Haynesville operators.
The acquired logs and core samples will be used to reprocess Empire’s existing 3D seismic data and evaluate development targets across the Lower Travis Peak, Cotton Valley Sand, Bossier and Haynesville intervals, as well as shallower stacked reservoirs.
Empire is also deepening two additional wells that are expected to provide modern logs, vertical seismic profile data and core samples. The results will help refine the company’s seismic interpretation and determine potential landing points and design parameters for future horizontal laterals.
“The next two wells will enhance our knowledge, improve the clarity of our 3D seismic data, and help establish the landing point and design parameters for a horizontal lateral from these wellbores,” President and CEO Mike Morrisett said.
Empire also owns associated midstream infrastructure in the area, including 49 miles of pipeline, 9.5 MMcfd of compression capacity and two takeaway outlets.
The Western Haynesville has attracted increasing deep-gas development activity, with operators targeting stacked Cotton Valley, Bossier and Haynesville intervals across East Texas.
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