Oil explorers educate Abbeville City Council

Members of a group planning to launch an oil exploration project in Vermilion Parish met Tuesday evening with the Abbeville City Council.
Members of the group requested to attend Tuesday’s regular to speak about the project with Abbeville Mayor Mark Piazza and the council. Among the group was Patrick Donohue, an Abbeville resident, who has an oil and gas properties businesses in Lafayette that is representing Dunn Exploration, a Houston-based company that is funding the project.
“We are wanting to start with the project on Sept. 1,” Donohue told the council. “The project may not reach the city limits by that time. We are shooting 35,000 acres, plus north and south of the city. It will be going from the west to the east, so the city will be one of the latter parts to be shot.”
The areas in the city that will be “shot” will be done so using seismic technology.
Ron Grice, a project manager with the Houston-based seismograph company CGG, also attended Tuesday’s meeting and explained part of that process.
“We are the seismic contractor for this job,” Grice explained.
No holes will be drilled within the city limits. Rather, the company will use vibrator trucks to take 3-D seismograph photos of what is under Abbeville, including possible oil and gas. Grice said the trucks weigh about 52,000 pounds.
“They are equivalent to a garbage truck in size,” Grice said.
Every quarter mile on the streets of Abbeville, the trucks, will stop for less than a minute in one spot and take pictures. The trucks will not travel every road in Abbeville.
“Right now the program is still a work in progress,” Grice explained to the council. “We really do not have a map right now that I can show you.
“Basically we are going to stay on the city streets with the vibrating parts of it and on the rights of way and by houses with the receivers.”
Piazza asked about the noise level. Grice explained that work will be done during business hours and the noise level is not more than the trucks occasionally revving up of the trucks’ engines.
Piazza also addressed his concern with the vibration aspect of the project.
“I guess my main concern is what type of effect will the vibration have on the water and sewer lines?,” Piazza asked.
Grice said he has seen no such negative effects in other areas. That includes Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Jennings, as well as areas in Mississippi.
“We’ve done all of this and to my knowledge there have been no issues,” Grice said.
Grice added that an independent third-party group, Urban Seismic, will be on hand to properly monitor CGG’s seismic activity and that it stays within federal government standards.
Councilman Brady Broussard Jr., District C, who attended a public meeting the group held recently at the library in Abbeville, told the mayor and fellow councilmen he is confident in the processes the group will take.
“They were very comprehensive in the information they presented,” Broussard said during the meeting. “They will take a survey of all the piping and know where every pipe runs. They will not be on top of piping in a person’s yard. They have given their word that any street damage would be repaired, but they don’t expect any.
“They eased many concerns from citizens.”
None of this is being done without permission of the citizens. Dunn Exploration recently began mailing out letters to thousands of homeowners in Abbeville requesting that they sign a release to allow CGG to place a seismograph sensor in their front yard for about three weeks. Residents who sign an return the release will receive $25. Not every resident will have the sensor in their yard but every resident who signs the two-year agreement will get a check for $25 from Dunn Exploration. Donohue asked that those who have received the letters return them to ensure better results.
“We want to try to get as many (releases) as we can,” Donohue said. “What we don’t receive, we will have to black out those areas.
“We are hopeful we will get a tremendous amount (releases), and we are able to image under a larger portion of the city for oil and gas, which is the reason this is all being done.”
The project is being done based on more than a hunch. Dunn Exploration has produced results in the parish with 11 producing wells located in the area, largely north of the Abbeville Country Club.
“They are not doing this because they are guessing?,” Councilman Francis Touchet Jr., District B, asked. “There is something that they are looking at.”
Donohue agreed.
“That is correct,” he said.
There are still steps to take before any oil or gas can be found. If that is the case, money can be made by some in the area.
“If there is production after all of the leases are obtained, wells are drilled and units are formed,” Donohue said, “then payments are made on a monthly basis.
“It can be a nice little income.”