Wattenberg Field, Colorado

The Denver Post recently reported that Anadarko estimates between 500 million and 1.5 billion barrels of oil remain in the Wattenberg field in the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado, thanks to the success of their horizontal drilling and fracing completion techniques in the Niobrara formation. Their first 11 wells started out with an average production of 800 BOPD.

Anadarko plans 1200 more wells in the Niobrara with TD’s below 6000′.

The Denver Post recently had a pretty well-balanced article about fracking. The article explains that the problems occur if the surface casing is not cemented properly, and the fracking procedure includes pressuring up the borehole to make sure the cement holds.

Often the problems are caused by surface spills and older wells that do not have cement jobs up to current day standards.