QEP Resources (QEP) held a conference call in conjunction with the release of third quarter of 2010 earnings. The company made several comments on its activities in the Niobrara Shale where the company has built up an 84,000 net acre position.
QEP Resources has finished drilling the Borie 16-4H well, its first horizontal test well into the Niobrara Shale. The company expects results to be announced sometime in early 2011.
“Turning to the exploratory front and I’ll put quotes around exploratory, QEP has now drilled and cased our first Niobrara Shale test on what has become an 84,000 net acre leasehold position in the Wyoming portion of the Denver Julesburg Basin.”
“So we’ve increased our acreage position since our last call in the play. Our Borie 16-4H well is a horizontal test. It’s targeting the chalk zones in the Niobrara Shale formation, which as you is the source rock with its full of oil, on a large anticlinal fold on the western part of the basin.”
“The well is located about 10 miles west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, right along Interstate 80. We drilled the well to a total depth of 14,200 feet and the lateral length, the lateral in zone is roughly 5,200 feet. We plan to complete this well with up to a 20-stage fracture stimulation, so a similar design to a Bakken stimulation.”
“Given the timing of the completion of the well, we won’t be in a position to discus results until at the earliest our fourth quarter year-end call in February.”
“So we want to see the well results from this play, from the Borie prospect. If the Borie prospect turns out to be commercial, then we could move into the development of that particular prospect fairly quickly.’
