PetroQuest Energy Inc. said it has made a “significant discovery” with a well targeting its internally generated Thunder Bayou prospect in South Louisiana. The company expects to place the well into production in 2Q2015.

The Lafayette, LA-based exploration and production (E&P) company said the well had logged 490 gross (202 net) feet of high quality pay within the primary Cris R2 objective. By comparison, the company said it produced more than 70 Bcfe gross from the Cris R2 sand since 2012, at its La Cantera project two miles south of Thunder Bayou.

“We are extremely excited about our Thunder Bayou discovery and the transformative impact it will have on our production, reserves and cash flow profiles,” said CEO Charles Goodson. “Early expectations are that Thunder Bayou is a project similar in scale to La Cantera, where gross total project finding and development costs are expected to be less than $1.00/Mcfe and each of the three wells drilled have paid out in less than one year.”

PetroQuest has a 50% working interest and a 37% net revenue interest in the well. The company said the well’s casing has been set to 20,350 feet to protect the logged interval, and that it is currently drilling to a proposed total depth of 21,500 feet to test the Cris R3 objective.

“[We] encountered additional potential pay sands in the upper and mid Cris R sands that will require further evaluation,” PetroQuest said.

The company said it expects daily gross production of approximately 25,000-30,000 Mcf/d of natural gas, plus associated oil and natural gas liquids (NGL). An upcoming well test will give a clearer picture of estimated production.

“Thunder Bayou’s land location will allow for production to be established quickly with significantly lower facilities costs as compared to La Cantera’s wet marshland location,” the company said.

PetroQuest sold its assets in the Fayetteville Shale to an undisclosed buyer for about $9.2 million at the start of 2013 (see Shale Daily, Jan. 9, 2013). The E&P is focused on oil and gas targets in East Texas, the Mississippian Lime and Woodford Shale in Oklahoma, South Louisiana, and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.