Miller plans to drill 50 Tennessee wells

Ray Tyson

Petroleum News Houston correspondent

Small independent Miller Petroleum said March 30 it plans to drill 50 new development wells on its 16,000-acre lease in Campbell County, Tenn., adding that drilling would test the Big Lime and the Devonian age Chattanooga shale at around the 3,200-foot level.

“We have established production in the Big Lime and the shale under these prospects is the thickest we have seen in Tennessee,” said Deloy Miller, the company’s chief executive officer. “We have the gas gathering system and pipelines in place. And we have an excellent market for the gas.”

Miller said the Tennessee-based exploration company would drill two wells in the 2004 third quarter on a deep wildcat prospect in the Eastern Overthurst of Tennessee. One well is projected for a depth of more than 6,500 feet, the company said.

“We have completed leasing and are ready to drill this prospect in a joint venture with a large Appalachian based independent oil company,” Miller said. “Knowledgeable geologists have described this large untested prospect as perhaps the largest unexplored structure in the Appalachian region and believe it could be a major hydrocarbon reservoir.”