Acadian Energy plans New Albany shale oil drilling program for 2012

Acadian Energy (CVE:ACX) announced Monday that it is planning a 2012 New Albany shale oil drilling program as it has worked to quantify the shale oil potential of its leases on the Maria Creek project in Indiana.

Working with Fekete Associates of Calgary, multiple well scenarios were modeled at the property, with sensitivity analyses performed to determine their impact on the estimated ultimate oil recovery.
The company said geochemical data from existing core log suggests that six horizontal multi-frac stimulated wells could recover up to 1,000 Mbbl and a minor amount of natural gas.
As a result, the junior exploration and production company said it plans to drill six cores in the Maria Creek project area of Sullivan County, Indiana, and test all potential zones as part of the oil exploration confirmation campaign.
Acadian's Maria Creek project has 1,238 net acres held by gas production with possible oil reserves of one million barrels of oil.
It is estimated that net well costs will range between $2.5 and $4 million per well with cost variability dependent on the intensity of the hydraulic fracturing, the company said.
The projected internal rate of return (IRR) is 300 percent with payout in 0.59 years, or 78 percent with payout in 1.26 years.
Acadian plans to have a drilling participant package in early summer 2012, it said.