Indiana
Atlas Energy Indiana, a subsidiary of Atlas Energy has acquired 120,000 net acres in the New Albany Shale.
This acreage position is largely contiguous and is located in Sullivan, Knox, Greene, Owen, Clay and Lawrence counties of southwestern Indiana. Further, the acreage is within the northern "biogenic" part of the New Albany Shale play where operators have drilled many successful horizontal wells.
A biogenic shale is unique in that methane is created as a bi-product of bacterial consumption of organic material contained in the shale. The Devonian aged New Albany Shale is a blanket formation found at depths of 500 to 3,000 feet, with thicknesses ranging from 100 to 200 feet. The natural fracture patterns in the New Albany Shale are vertically oriented which makes the play well suited to horizontal wells. Atlas has reviewed over thirty successful horizontal completions within and in close proximity to the acreage where it has acquiring rights. Horizontal wells in the New Albany Shale having 4,000 to 5,000 foot laterals can be drilled for approximately $900,000. The Company expects Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) of approximately 1.3 billion cubic feet per well.
