Toreador: A Long Way from the Bakken
Going for unconventional oil in France
When it comes to exploration of unconventional resources in Europe, not everyone’s going for shale gas, according to Emmanual Mousset, Managing Director at Toreador Resources Corporation headquartered in France.
Speaking before an audience at the European Unconventional Gas Summit Paris 2011 , he noted that there were about 50 or 60 shale basins in the US, and that the big names in unconventionals are also involved in Europe right now.
He then showed delegates a map of the players in Europe.
“They’re principally in Eastern Europe, where most of emphasis is on Poland, and also Western Europe, concentrating a bit on France in the south, where other companies are looking into shale oil, which requires the same technique basically.”
Toreador’s emphasis appears to be on unconventional oil.
Mr. Mousset went on to discuss the company’s experiences in the Paris Basin shale oil play. He said that in addition to a stable fiscal environment, there were significant basins in France.
“The Paris Basin has been studied extensively, and there is a tremendous data set,” he said. “There’s an estimated 100 billion barrels there.”
“How to access this? Through drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which has been around since the 1950s. Some attempts have already been made this year by Vermilion Energy, so there is some encouragement,” explained Mousset.
“Understanding the basin you have to work by analogy.”
He told delegates that NASDAQ listed Toreador was, had quite a good acreage base, and was a prime holder in the Paris Basin, adding, “We’ve signed a partnership with Hess, who has the science and the technology, and is one of the largest operators in the Bakken.”
Mousset discussed the Bakken shale in North America, using it as a basis for comparison.
“Production started in the 50s, and it has been producing for a while, but in the last 3-4 years there’s been quite a jump in the production curve in North Dakota oil production.”
He showed the point where shale oil showed up in that curve.
Mousset said, “The Paris basin is stable, and has lots of source rocks, many source rock layers that generate in the center of the basin.”
His slide showed that basin’s similarities with the Bakken.
“If you look at these parameters, they basically have a footprint which is quite identical but of course they have some differences.”
According to Mousset, producing shale oil involves proving the concept using proven technology.
He reported, “We’re using good equipment, logs, taking a lot of cores and using a lot of science. Drilling a few pilot holes, we’re using the technology to acquire the knowledge. It’s no different than shale gas, in that it’s also drilling a horizontal near the source rocks.”
Toreador is using a German T-208 drilling rig, which Mousset said could reach 5000-6000 meters, was modern, soundproof and had a minimum footprint.
“With the first pilot wells you take great care in protecting your aquifers,” he explained. “When you reach your objective you core - you want to get a lot of info on the rock properties, the mechanics.”
Subsequent pilot wells, he said, could be either horizontal or vertical.
“We’ve tried to compare some of the costs with those in the Bakkan and what they could be in the Paris Basin. It’s difficult to say, but we can derive them. There’s not a huge difference in the cost of drilling but production is unknown.”
One thing is very different in the Paris Basin. In terms of well spacing, Mousset stated that some believed they should be every 200 meters, which he thought was wrong.
“There’s no need to put a pad in the near vicinity of a pad,” he said. “Here you’ll see a pad every five or 10 kilometers, which is completely different than at the Bakken.”
Editor's Note: Subsequent to this presentation, the French Government announced that it would be revisiting Shale Oil and Shale Gas development. A series of articles on this topic are available at Natural Gas for Europe. Please enter "Toreador" in our search function to locate these articles.