Questar Finishes Drilling ‘Deep Well’ in Wyoming

Questar Market Resources, a subsidiary of Salt Lake-based Questar Corp., said it has completed drilling a natural gas “deep well” in Pinedale, Wyo.

The total depth of the well is 19,520 feet. Typical natural gas wells are drilled to 14,500 feet.

Questar is spending more than $11 million on its deep well, more than double the cost of a typical well, hoping to capture natural gas reserves locked in a new underground formation.

Questar said there is evidence of natural gas, but the company said it is too early to tell what production rates or recoverable reserves may be.

“The key question is whether the reservoirs at these depths are of sufficient quality and thickness to contain commercial quantities of gas,” the company said in a statement. “Given winter-access restrictions, complete results may not be available until the third quarter of 2006 or later.”