• Shale Oil


• Jolly Ranch Group
  • Overview
  • Petroleum System
  • Geology
  • Reservoir Simulation
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  • Production
• Where we operate

Nighthawk holds a 75% interest and is the operator of the Jolly Ranch Group project (“Jolly Ranch”) comprising the Jolly Ranch, Middle Mist and Mustang Creek areas, covering approximately 410,000 gross acres of Lincoln, Elbert and Washington Counties, Colorado.

Jolly Ranch lies within the southeast flank of the Denver-Julesburg Basin, a major mid-continent hydrocarbon producing basin. The source of the produced hydrocarbons is the black organic shales that are interbedded with siliclastic and carbonate rocks. The shales at Jolly Ranch are within the oil generation window and there is reasonable certainty of reservoir and source rock continuity throughout the project area.

To date, 19 wells of 7,500-8,000 feet have been drilled on a core 50,000 acre area by the previous operator Running Foxes Petroleum, all of which encountered multiple pay horizons. These wells are undergoing completion operations to determine the optimum method of fraccing and several have been placed on long term production. Two wells are being utilised as water disposal wells due to their prime location thereby lowering the costs associated with water transportation.

The current work programme is the undertaking of a series of work overs on the existing well set to generate as much production and formation knowledge as feasible. In addition Nighthawk is reinterpreting the 70 square mile 3D seismic survey and will tie this in with the existing well data. In Q2 the Company will begin to undertake five new wells, four vertical and one lateral step out. In July 2009 Schlumberger Data & Consulting Services, completed an independent evaluation of the oil in place covering 246,000 gross acres of the approximate 370,000 held within the project at that time. The study was undertaken to assess resources in place in the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) Marmaton, Cherokee and Atoka formations. The P50, or most likely oil in place, was calculated to be 1.462 billion barrels gross in these three horizons and furthermore that regional continuity of the formations was such that the resources in place are likely to be laterally continuous across the total acreage.

In July 2009 Schlumberger Data & Consulting Services, completed an independent evaluation of the oil in place covering 246,000 gross acres of the approximate 370,000 held within the project at that time. The study was undertaken to assess resources in place in the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) Marmaton, Cherokee and Atoka formations. The P50, or most likely oil in place, was calculated to be 1.462 billion barrels gross in these three horizons and furthermore that regional continuity of the formations was such that the resources in place are likely to be laterally continuous across the total acreage.