DENVER, Colorado – In a news story worthy of the you-gotta-be-shitting-me files, independent wellsite geological consultant Hugh Montgomery recently admitted to being chiefly responsible for drilling a 1550m dual leg horizontal well in 100% non-reservoir. The $1.7MM drilling operation was a complete flop, and the Denver-based operating company, Crude Rock Resources, is looking for answers:

We anticipated the drill to go rather smoothly with pretty much a 95% chance of success considering we were drilling between producing verticals in a field where we have excellent well control. What’s more is that the reservoir, despite being relatively mature, continues to produce prolifically with a 9m net pay thickness and favourable perm, porosity, and a natural fracture system. I suppose the only saving grace is that we don’t need to spend an additional $0.8MM to complete, equip, and tie-in the well.

The development manager for the area continued by saying,

We later learned that the reports sent back to the office geologist were falsified.We were being told that the first leg was 94% in pay, and the second leg was in for 86%, which we thought was quite reasonable. But after having a chance to review the cuttings, it appears that the wellbore’s entire horizontal length was in the anhydrite cap marker, and the software that recorded the drill indicates that there were no gas shows. None, not even a little. We should have checked references before trying this new wellsite geological consultant.

This image below shows exactly how poorly the well was drilled.

When asked about this significant drilling failure on his watch, Mr. Montgomery remarked,

Well, for what it’s worth, I was able to stay in the anhydrite marker quite well, considering how thin it was. And who knows, perhaps the well can be fracked through the anhydrite into the oil bearing formation to bring the oil up. Yeah, if they frack and continue to force water into the reservoir, gravity will pull the denser water down forcing the oil into the wellbore. So this could turn out to be a pretty good well afterall.

In an effort to find answers, Crude Rock Resources hired a small team of private investigators. They later discovered that Mr. Montgomery was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol throughout the course of the entire 10-day drilling operation. Three eye witnesses independently recalled Hugh smoking fatties behind the Geological site trailer on a number of occasions . The case is now before the courts.