A Barnett Shale well operated by Chesapeake Energy Corp. produced on average 17.824 MMcf/d for the month of September, surpassing any of the 14,000-plus wells drilled to date in the North Texas play.

The White South No. 1 H well is in Tarrant County near Arlington.

Chesapeake, which did not release any revenue figures, also did not add too much to the hoopla. A spokesman called the well “exceptional,” adding that it would take exceptional wells to make money “considering the price of natural gas.”

Based on a hypothetical gas price of $4/Mcf, gross revenue from the well would have yielded an average of $71,296/day, or about $2.1 million for September. According to Chesapeake, the well cost about $3.5 million to drill and complete. Because of current gas prices, the Oklahoma City-based producer said it has reduced production on the monster well to about 4 MMcf/d.

Eight wells have been drilled to date on the White South pad site; three more wells are planned there, according to Chesapeake. The White A2H, A4H and B5H are expected to ramp up in February.

The Barnett well may be a monster in the grandfather shale, but the well is not the most prolific gas well to date publicly reported in a shale play.

In late December 2008 Petrohawk Energy Corp. and EXCO Resources Inc. separately reported ramping up two gas wells in the Haynesville Shale in northwestern Louisiana at double-digit rates.

Petrohawk placed three new Haynesville wells on production in November 2008 at a combined rate of 73 MMcfe/d, with one well delivering the highest reported initial production (IP) rate of any well in the company’s history at 28.2 MMcfe/d. Dallas-based EXCO said its first Haynesville horizontal well had an IP rate of 22.8 MMcfe/d (see Daily GPI, Dec. 10, 2008).

In January 2009 Chesapeake reported that average IP/test rates from seven of its Haynesville wells at the time averaged 16 MMcfe/d (see Daily GPI, Jan. 29).

One month later Questar Corp. said one well in the Louisiana play had an IP rate of 23.5 MMcf/d and had averaged about 18 MMcf/d (see Daily GPI, Feb. 13, 2009). Another well in the play went to sale at an IP rate of 20.3 MMcf/d.