From the Beaumont Enterprise:

Drill west of Major Drive nears its 15,500-foot bottom
By DAN WALLACH
June 7, 2009
Posted: June 5, 2009, 5:08 PM CDT Last updated: June 5, 2009, 9:34 PM CDT

Day and night, the drill bit chews into the earth west of Major Drive, and in a couple of days, it will have reached a depth of almost three miles.

Then, the real excitement begins. Does subterranean Southeast Texas have anything left in the tank?

"If you're in the oil business, you have to be optimistic," said Jeff Linton of Cimarex Energy Corp.'s Gulf Coast land development department.

Cimarex,, headquartered in Dallas and with offices in Houston, Dallas, Midland, and Tulsa, Okla., is drilling on the site north of Dishman Road, just outside the Beaumont city limits.

The exploration company isn't alone in its search for mineral riches. Its rig just happens to attract attention because people can see it, particularly at night when its lights are blazing.

Others are obscured by trees, such as Hilcorp Energy Co.'s exploration rigs in an area between Gladys Avenue and the Delaware Street extension, east of Major Drive in what once was known as the West Beaumont field.

That field was developed in the 1930s and continued to operate until the last owner, BP Amoco, pulled up its rigs and departed about 10 years ago. That opened up the area for commercial and residential development.

Once Cimarex reaches the depth permitted by the Texas Railroad Commission, rig operators will insert a data sensor down the well bore to check for the presence of hydrocarbons.

"We're still drilling," Linton said Friday. "We're hoping to finish in the next three or four days."

That would put it on schedule to reach bottom by Monday or Tuesday.

What might result?

"Wells in this area usually produce a combination of natural gas and condensate, which is oil associated with gas," Linton said.

He said between 50 and 75 barrels of oil usually flows with every million cubic feet of gas in such a well.

Cimarex won't know until its sensor test is completed.

Alan Murphy, owner of Murphy Energy Co. in Saratoga, operates four oil wells around Hardin County that produce perhaps five to eight barrels apiece per day. Those are what are known as stripper wells, ones producing 10 or fewer barrels per day.

Murphy's wells likely are more than a half-century old, but he tends them well to coax all he can from them.

He said most drilling rigs in Southeast Texas are hunting for natural gas these days, and most "plays" are made at a depth between 15,000 and 17,000 feet deep.

"That's pretty common in our area," he said.

Murphy said he thinks plenty of oil and gas remains to be pulled from Southeast Texas, but he worries that removing tax breaks for drillers will snuff out exploration.

"There's uncertainty right now," he said. "There's a lot that can be drilled. But if you take away the tax breaks, they'll go someplace else, like a foreign country."