Empire Petroleum (EP) said Monday that it successfully re-entered and evaluated the Wakefield-Harrison GU B1 well in Texas to a depth of 21,006 feet.
The well, originally drilled in 1959, was deepened, underreamed and cleaned out to expose previously untested formations, it said. Empire said it completed a modern open-hole logging program and recovered sidewall cores, recording hydrocarbon shows including gas and liquids.
The company said the work cost about $4.4 million, compared with reported costs of $30 million to $45 million for new ultra-deep wells in the broader Western Haynesville. The well reached about 1,713 feet deeper than Comstock Resources' (CRK) McCullough GLR 3 and 2,398 feet deeper than Expand Energy's (EXE) Bobby Yancey 1 pilot well, based on true vertical depth.
Empire said the data will support further development planning and reprocessing of its existing 3D seismic data.