Mullins & White Exploration has land holdings throughout the continental United States. However, our largest active drilling and production projects are in Utah, Texas, and Louisiana.

In Utah, we participate in a series of nine coalbed methane wells located in the East Helper field in Carbon County. Coalbed methane (CBM) is gas that lines the pore spaces of coal. Because coal itself has little permeability, production of the gas relies on natural fractures in the coal reservoir unit. Flow rates of CBM wells are lower than the typical petroleum-producing well, averaging around 300 MCF per day. Notably, two of the East Helper wells have been producing around 1,000 MCF per day for almost two years. Cumulative gas production from all CBM wells in Carbon County, Utah since 1987 totals more than 711 BCF. The East Helper wells contributed more than 1 BCF to that total.

Our current focus in Texas is in the eastern half of the state. We are partners in eight wells in Freestone and Rusk counties that produce from various parts of the Cotton Valley Consolidated section. This is a complex sequence of sandstone, shale, and limestone that spans the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous. Target reservoirs exist in the Cotton Valley Limestone at the base of the section; sands within the Bossier Shale, which is considered a regional source rock; and sands in the upper part of the Cotton Valley.

MWEX has pursued oil and gas in the Austin Chalk since 2003 when we joined Anadarko in their 34,000 acre play in Tyler County. Since then, we have participated in more than 50 Chalk wells in Tyler, Polk, Grimes, and Burleson Counties of Texas and in the Rapides and Evangeline Parishes in Louisiana. MWEX holds more than 100 MMBOE net proved reserves as of 2007, and more than 40% of that resides in our Chalk wells.

The Austin Chalk is a play that has come in and out of fashion more than once in the past decades. The combination of the high price of oil and greatly improved technology has allowed small independents to exploit underexplored Chalk plays. Most Chalk wells have one or more laterals that extend out horizontally into the Chalk reservoir. The laterals may be as short as a thousand feet or extend more than five thousand feet from the vertical part of the well. Because the Chalk is a tight reservoir with low permeability, hydrocarbon production relies on natural and artificially induced fractures. The horizontal parts of the well bore intersect more fractures than a vertical hole through the Chalk does, increasing the productivity of these wells.

In the past few months, MWEX has partnered with Cabot Oil and Gas and others to drill a series of horizontal wells in Shelby and San Augustine Counties targeting the James Lime. This Lower Cretaceous transgressive limestone is part of the Glen Rose Formation. Many of the same drilling and completion techniques applied to the Austin Chalk can be used to exploit the James Lime.