KU News Release

Major study spurs more drilling for natural gas in largest U.S. reservoir

LAWRENCE — Research by the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas has attracted some $55 million in investments by energy companies in a mammoth natural gas field — the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

The giant Hugoton field, located under the High Plains of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, has seen a decline in natural gas production in recent years. Experts thought two productive layers of the Hugoton field (the Council Grove and Chase reservoirs) were cut off from each other by shale — a type of rock that thwarts underground movement of oil and gas. This shale barrier would make gas extraction more difficult and expensive.

But in 2007, perceptions of the Hugoton gas field brightened when the geological survey in conjunction with energy companies completed a four-year research project on the gas reservoirs.

“We wrote a technical report that proved the Council Grove and Chase were connected by fractures and were not isolated from each other,” said William Harrison, director of the geological survey and state geologist. “This was the first-ever scientific publication to document the communication of these two underground rock formations.”

The research, dubbed the Hugoton Assessment and Management Project, surprised geologists, drillers and regulators. It has set off a rush of investment in southwestern Kansas by oil and gas companies.

According to geological survey scientists, since the study 82 new wells have been drilled at the cost of about $400,000 each. Further, 223 preexisting wells have been upgraded, at a cost of $100,00 per well.

This new investment has flowed into southwestern Kansas, bolstering royalties, tax revenue and other income. Today, the Kansas Corporation Commission, a state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, estimates that 100 new wells may be drilled yet.

“There was a huge amount of data available for the Hugoton,” said Harrison. “The problem was that it was scattered in various places. So the idea was to bring along a lot of industry partners, along with the expertise here at the survey, and try and accumulate the massive amount of drilling data into one place, then use that to construct computer models of what the reservoirs look like.”

The geological survey co-leaders on the Hugoton project were Tim Carr, now at the University of West Virginia, and Marty Dubois, who is now a consultant in Lawrence. They, along with Alan Byrnes, presently with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in Oklahoma City, did the bulk of the work on the project.

Discovered in 1922, the Hugoton natural gas field is among the largest on the planet.

“The Hugoton is the 800-pound gorilla of energy production in Kansas,” said Rex Buchanan, deputy director of the geological survey. “It made Kansas one of the top natural-gas-producing states in the country.”

There are about 7,600 wells in the Hugoton in Kansas.

Energy companies participating in the study included smaller, independent companies such as Anadarko, Cimarex, EOG, Pioneer — and also industry behemoths such as BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil.

“It’s hard to look at this and not say that it’s a good thing in almost any way, shape or form,” Buchanan said. “At the end of the day you’ve not only generated more income, but you’ve produced more energy. We all know that we’ve got energy problems in this country. And you’ve produced domestic energy as opposed to importing energy from overseas. That’s all to the good. The more of that we can do, the better off we’re all going to be.”

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