Serendipity is the aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. The development of the Arkoma basin's Furgerson field in Pope County, Arkansas, is an excellent example of this.

Although it was discovered in 1965, little development occurred in this field until 1981 when Texas Oil & Gas drilled the 1 Beard (Sec. 32, T9N, R20W). This well encountered two pay sands within the Pennsylvanian Atoka and one within the Pennsylvanian Morrow for total reserves of 4-5 bcf of gas. The TXO 1 Forehand (Sec. 33, T9N, R20W) was then drilled as an offset, supposedly aimed at encountering the same sands. Unfortunately, the Atoka pays present in the 1 Beard were faulted out, and the

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Morrow pay was tight. Instead, the 1 Forehand encountered three new Atoka pays and one new Morrow pay. When completed, the well sold in excess of 13 MMCFGD until pipeline takes were curtailed. Subsequent drilling in this section yielded two more producers and one new pay, which resulted in establishing proven reserves of approximately 25 bcf of gas in this section.

All production from the Furgerson field is dry gas from 11 different Pennsylvanian sands at depths less than 6,500 ft. Cumulative production for the field is 16 bcf of gas, and remaining reserves are approximately 44 bcf. At the time of this writing, the field contains 22 producers and 5 dry holes. Field boundaries are not fully defined, and development drilling continues to result in economically attractive wells. Few, however, could be as pleasant a surprise as 1 Beard and 1 Forehand.

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