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Houston Natural Resources Corp. Buys WV’s Cunningham Energy LLC

In 2015 Cunningham Energy, a small oil driller based in West Virginia, struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). In 2017 the company reported producing 20,000 barrels of oil from two new shallow horizontal oil wells in Clay County, targeting the Big Injun (see Cunningham Energy Strikes More Oil in WV). Cunningham drilled two more wells on the same pad, the Lions Paw pad in 2019 (see Cunningham’s WV Lions Paw Pad Roars, Produces 100K Bbl of Oil). Since then, we haven’t heard or read any more news about Cunningham. The company is back in the news in a big way: Houston Natural Resources Corp (HNRC) has completed a 100% interest in Cunningham. That is, Cunningham was bought out by HNRC.
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35 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 13-19

New shale permits issued for Feb. 13-19 in the Marcellus/Utica remained elevated last week. There were 35 new permits issued in total last week (down slightly from 40 the week before), including 27 new permits for Pennsylvania, three new permits for Ohio, and five permits issued in West Virginia. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Coterra Energy, with 13 new permits for Susquehanna County, PA. The number two permittee was Apex Energy with five permits in Westmoreland County, PA.
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40 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Feb 6-12

New shale permits issued for Feb. 5-12 in the Marcellus/Utica increased nicely last week. There were 40 new permits issued in total last week, including 25 new permits for Pennsylvania, 11 new permits for Ohio, and four permits issued in West Virginia. The week before, there were only 26 new permits issued. Last week the top receiver of new permits was Seneca Resources, with six new permits for Tioga County, PA. Coterra Energy received five permits for Susquehanna County, PA. In Ohio, Encino Energy and Ascent Resources both received four new permits–in Carroll and Harrison counties, respectively.
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14 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jan 16-22

New shale permits issued for Jan. 16-22 in the Marcellus/Utica included only 7 new permits in Pennsylvania, 5 new permits in Ohio, and 2 new permits in West Virginia–for a grand total of 14. The top recipient of permits for last week, scoring nearly half, was Coterra Energy (the former Cabot Oil & Gas), with 6 permits issued in northeastern PA’s Susquehanna County.
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Cunningham’s WV Lions Paw Pad Roars, Produces 100K Bbl of Oil

The Big Injun is back in the news. In 2015 Cunningham Energy, a small oil driller based in West Virginia, struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). In 2017 the company reported producing 20,000 barrels of oil from two new shallow horizontal oil wells located in Clay County, targeting the Big Injun (see Cunningham Energy Strikes More Oil in WV). Cunningham drilled two more wells on the same pad, the Lions Paw pad, and as of this week that 4-well pad has surpassed producing a total of 100,000 barrels of oil and 91 million cubic feet (MMcf) of “wet” natural gas.
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Cunningham Energy Focuses on Shallow Horizontal Oil Wells in WV

Cunningham Energy is a small oil driller based in West Virginia. In 2015, Cunningham struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). In 2016, Cunningham announced they would target another shallow formation, the Weir Sand formation, a few layers below the Big Injun (same group of rocks called the Mississippian system), once again looking for oil (see Cunningham Using Horizontal Drilling to Target Weir Sand in WV). Cunningham issued a press release two days ago to announce that its Lions Paw 4-Well Pad, in Clay County, is now producing at a rate of 10,000 plus barrels of oil per month. Normally we don’t cover news from conventional drillers, but Cunningham is interesting for a few reasons. While the rock layers Cunningham targets are layers typically targeted by conventional oil drillers, the lines are beginning to become blurred between conventional and unconventional. Cunninghamton targets shallow layers using horizontal drilling, and they drill increasingly longer laterals. Yet they don’t frack their wells. Correction: They do frack! Cunningham sent us an email to let us know they do use fracking on their shallow, horizontal wells. Is this conventional? Or unconventional? Perhaps we should invent a new word to describe it: biconventional. Drilling with elements of both conventional and unconventional. Here’s the Cunningham announcement that existing wells are pumping oil with impressive numbers. The release also mentions Cunningham’s plans to drill more shallow horizontal wells in both Clay and Kanawha counties this year…
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Cunningham Energy Strikes More Oil in WV

Cunningham Energy is a small oil driller based in West Virginia. In 2015, Cunningham struck oil in the Big Injun sandstone formation in Clay County, WV (see Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory). In 2016, Cunningham announced they would target another shallow formation, the Weir Sand formation, a few layers below the Big Injun (same group of rocks called the Mississippian system), once again looking for oil (see Cunningham Using Horizontal Drilling to Target Weir Sand in WV). Last week Cunningham provided an update to say they’ve hit a milestone by producing 20,000 barrels of oil production from two new shallow horizontal oil wells located in Clay County, once again targeting the Big Injun. They also said they will soon begin to drill those previously mentioned Weir wells in Kanawha County. Normally we don’t cover news from conventional drillers, but Cunningham is interesting for a few reasons. While the rock layers Cunningham targets are layers typically targeted by conventional oil drillers, the lines are beginning to become blurred between conventional and unconventional. Cunninghamton targets shallow layers using horizontal drilling, and they drill increasingly longer laterals. Yet they don’t frack their wells. What is the definition of conventional vs. unconventional drilling? In brief, unconventional is the marriage of both horizontal drilling AND fracking. If you don’t have both, you don’t have what we consider an unconventional well. Yet conventional wells, like those drilled by Cunningham, increasingly have characteristics of unconventional wells, like long horizontal laterals (used to be vertical-only). Cunningham, in their promotional material, talks about one day drilling shale wells. Looks like they’re getting practiced up and ready…
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Cunningham Strikes Oil in West Virginia’s Big Injun Territory

Back in 2013 we warned you that the injuns were coming–the Big Injun sandstone formation in West Virginia (see The Injuns are Coming! Injun Formation Drilling, that is). We told you then that Cunningham Energy of Charleston, WV was about to drill several shallow horizontal wells in the politically incorrectly named Big Injun Formation. We thought Cunningham was drilling for natural gas, but as it turns it, it was oil they were after. And, according to a press release, it’s oil that Cunningham has struck in the Big Injun…
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The Injuns are Coming! Injun Formation Drilling, that is

Warning - Politically IncorrectSorry, but we can’t avoid using a politically incorrect term in this report: “Injun.” As in the Big Injun Formation, a layer of tightly-packed sandstone that lies above the Marcellus Shale layer in several West Virginia counties. Apparently there’s natural gas in the Big Injun in Clay County, WV, and Cunningham Energy (of Charleston) is going to drill three horizontal/fracked wells to try and get that gas. Fracking the Big Injun has been talked about for a long time (here’s a Society of Petroleum Engineers conference paper that specifically addresses that very topic from 1988!). However, combining horizontal drilling with fracking is relatively new and didn’t happen in the northeast until Range Resources drilled the first Marcellus Shale well in 2004 in western PA.

Until now, we’ve heard of the horizontal drilling/fracking combination being used in the Marcellus, the Utica and the Upper Devonian. Looks like we can now add a fourth formation to that illustrious list: the Big Injun. Good luck to Cunningham Energy as they go Big Injun hunting for natural gas…
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