Apr 25, 2010 (The Lewiston Morning Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Geologically recent rock formations related to the creation of Hells Canyon have attracted the attention of two Canadian natural gas exploration firms.
Calgary-based Bridge Resources Corp. and Paramax Resources Ltd., have partnered to drill five exploration wells near Payette and New Plymouth, Idaho. The work began March 1, with three wells already completed. All three penetrated gas-producing sandstone layers, according to company news releases; testing over the next few weeks will determine whether enough gas is present to warrant commercial production.
Except for one well drilled in the southeast corner of the state a few years ago, these are the first oil or gas exploration wells drilled in Idaho in more than 20 years, said economic geologist Virginia Gillerman with the Idaho Geological Survey.
Almost 150 wells were drilled across the state between 1903 and 1988, but none encountered commercial quantities of oil or natural gas
.
However, Gillerman said she's talked with people in the Payette region who have "a fair bit" of natural gas in their domestic water wells.
"I've heard anecdotal stories that some people converted that to household use," she said. "Gas is definitely there. It's just a question of whether there's enough for a commercial venture."
Tom Stewart, vice president of Bridge Resources, said historical records of gas flows in older exploratory wells is what brought the company to Idaho.
"Even though there hasn't been much drilling there, quite a few of the older wells did report flows of gas," he said. "That's what got us interested."
Bridge Resources formed in 2005. It drilled one successful natural gas well in the North Sea region in 2008, but high costs prompted it to look for new opportunities elsewhere.
Drilling an exploratory well in the North Sea costs about $15 million to $20 million, Stewart said, and bringing it into completion costs even more.
By contrast, the estimated cost for all five Idaho wells is about $5 million. So far, the drilling is ahead of schedule and under budget.
"It's probably taken half the time we expected," Stewart said.
The wells range in depth from about 4,500 to 7,000 feet. Four are on private land, with one on state land. If commercial production takes place, landowners would receive royalty payments; the state also imposes a 2 percent tax on the value of any production.
In the area where Bridge Resources is drilling, the carbon-bearing rocks that provide a source of natural gas and the sandstone layers that serve as gas storage reservoirs are both related to ancient Lake Idaho sedimentation.
The lake initially formed about 11 million years ago, Gillerman said, when faulting along the northern and southern margins of the western Snake River Plain dropped the intervening blocks down and created an elongated valley.
Rivers fed into the depression, depositing fine sediments in the middle of the growing lake and coarser sands along the margins. The sediments underlie what is now the Treasure Valley; the Hagerman fossil beds west of Twin Falls are also in Lake Idaho deposits, and the aquifer beneath Boise formed in Lake Idaho sandstones.
The lake expanded and contracted over the course of several million years, at times drying out entirely and sometimes extending all the way from Buhl to the Oregon border. About 2 million years ago, Gillerman said, headward erosion along the ancestral Snake River intersected the western margin of Lake Idaho. The subsequent draining helped carve Hells Canyon.
The much younger Glacial Lake Bonneville floods also helped shape the canyon, Gillerman said, as well as carving canyons along the Snake River Plain portion of the river.
In the Payette region, the Lake Idaho sedimentary formations are thousands of feet thick. Bridge Resources indicated it has encountered gas in several sandstone layers spaced out over intervals of 40 to 400 feet, depending on the well.
Stewart declined to speculate how much gas would be needed to justify commercial production, saying it depends on a variety of factors such as proximity to existing pipelines and how much water has to be removed.
In her conversations with the company, Gillerman said they likened it to a mining operation. They have certain costs of development, and those costs are going to be higher in Idaho than in established gas fields, where supply firms and other specialty businesses are set up to support drilling operations.
"So they're probably going to need a better showing (of gas) here than elsewhere," Gillerman said. "Idaho is definitely wildcat territory -- but that's where you find new resources."
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