going off the grid---natural gas

[jmrob93]

We have land that we inherited( 180 acres) and we are pretty sure that that we are sitting on gas and oil-- a wildcat was drilled in '73 and only went down 9200 ft-- they went through gas pockets 3 times. They never hit oil, but 2 yrs later seismic showed it as at 12k down.

How possible is it to drill and install a gas well-- finance it personally or thru a small group of investors.

kind of like moonshine-- keep what you want and sell the rest-- I'm thinking natural gas generator for home and CNG cars

we have a pipeline running thru our property-- sell the remainder

Thoughts?

 

[mcbrett]

My thoughts are the way to maximize your revenues from this is to let a professional corporation come in and mine your gas resources (after getting multiple quotes of course.)

To do the secondary albeit related project to use the gas to power your home is a really fun idea- but also expensive and a distraction IMO from the central project which is selling your gas to a company. The necessary infrastructure to set this up for personal use would cost a lot- whereas if you instead focus on selling your gas to Valero, BP etc you could use the $ for not only your own electricity but whatever else you want.

Of course- if economics are not an issue and this is a project because you enjoy it- that's another story.

I find that for personal, self generation projects, small scale wind and solar have the best payback periods- plus are pretty cool to show off to friends. Plus- the choice of CNG cars are very limited- whereas you could buy a Tesla or Fisker if you're into being off the grid- those are very cool!

 

[GHoward]

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[wewokahorn]

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[SkySooner]

No way do you want to do this on your own. You can always negotiate a lease that gives you the right to take some of your royalty in natural gas production but even this is a stretch with CO2 and H2S possible.

I have spent the last 20 years on understanding and quantifying risk with a large natural gas company. What makes it work for us is repeated trials (large numbers of wells) and experience doing the projects. Even good operators in the area we operate can spend $20 million drilling a well that costs us $8 million simply due to our experience.

 

[general35]

You can't do it on your own. It is not cost effective. A large comnpany used to drilling wells like yours would prob cost between 3-5 million for just the well and you need a pipeline to move it. What county is your land in? are you over a producing field? if its good, take a 1/4 royalty and write in the lease for the company to provide a tap to the gas line so you can get free gas.

 

[BigWill]

just tap into the pipeline that runs through the property. All the gas you want, no drilling involved.

 

[bullzak]

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[THEU]

jmrob,
in addition to the above, there is no promise that even if you were to hit NG, that it would be perfectly usable out of the well. I am no expert, but I know that some NG has higher or lower 'wet' contents. which means that many pockets of NG, have water, and oil mixed in a bit. So they need to be refined just a bit.
The best thing to do, as someone whose family has NG wells on property, is to have a professional outfit come in and drill and give you the profits. They are taking all the risk, and you will get money from a 'lease' even if they hit NOTHING. Which means you profit just for their taking a risk. Then you get royalties. In my experience, your royalties will be much MORE than all the fuel costs of your cars and house for your lifetime and that of your kids and grandkids.
I mean, (and here making up some numbers) if you were to make 100K a year in royalties and lease money, then do you really need to try to fuel your house with NG? I doubt it.

 

[Frogstyle]

a drilling rig making hole will often encounter gas pockets while drilling to total depth. meeting gas while drilling doesn’t necessarily indicate the presence of commercially viable pay zone.

here is a free application for determining operator activity in the area
The Link

enter W1 drill permit application query. use the drop box to select the county where your minerals are located. in the box labeled well type select oil or gas well. in the box labeled filing purpose select “recomplete”. you are specifically looking for recomplete permits filed during the past 60 months not exceeding 9,200 total depth.

take note of any operator that has performed re-entries or re-completions in your area. this operator, if found, will more than likely be your best opportunity.