Niobrara: the next big shale play
Potential of between 500 million and 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent unconventionals
The liquids-rich Niobrara Shale may prove as prolific as the Bakken and Eagle Ford, if Anadarko’s estimates for its Wattenberg field’s unconventional potential are proved up. The US independent said earlier this week that initial results from its Horizontal Niobrara and Codell drilling programme at Wattenberg – a conventional gasfield in Colorado’s Denver-Julesberg basin, which sits over part of the Niobrara Shale – indicate the field could hold between 500 million and 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in unconventional resources. So far, Anadarko has drilled 11 horizontal wells into the Niobrara at Wattenberg, with each showing strong initial flow rates and liquids yields of aroun
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