The price to join in the play is only going to go up.

“If someone is waiting for it to be a ‘sure thing,’ then it’s not going to be $5,000 an acre anymore.”

Rob Turnham told analysts, fund managers and media this in a break-out room Q&A at the IPAA’s OGIS New York investment symposium this week. Turnham, president and chief operating officer of Goodrich Petroleum Corp., was referring to an interest in the small-cap’s promising Tuscaloosa Marine Shale play in eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi.

Goodrich has a one-third partner, China’s Sinopec, in some of its acreage. It has suggested that it might take a one-third-interest partner in the rest of its position. Turnham’s comment meant that, each time it, Encana Corp. and Halcon Resources Corp. drill a successful TMS well, the price for others of buying into it will go up.

“$15,000, $20,000…,” Turnham said. “Feel free to do the math….”

Halcon is moving a rig and crew from its Eagle Ford play in southeastern Texas to the TMS to spud the first of nine or 10 wells this year for it. Floyd Wilson, chairman and chief executive, told OGIS attendees that findings suggest 600,000- to 700,000-barrel wells can be made in the 90%-plus-oil-rich rock. “I think (the code’s) already been cracked (by Goodrich and Encana),” Wilson said, “but you need another 50 wells to prove it. And I think it’s well on its way.”

In a break-out session, he said Halcon isn’t actively seeking a partner in its position in the TMS. Financially, “a JV is not necessary but we would look at it to accelerate drilling,” he said.

Also, he said, “there’s plenty of interest (that has been expressed to Halcon), by the way.”

Drill days are as many as 30 to reach the deep TMS and make a 4,000- to 8,000-foot lateral. Wilson was asked about the odds of getting those down to 12. He said that using a drilling crew that has been working the Eagle Ford for it in Texas will help pare the drill time. Overall, the challenge—as measured in feet—is similar to that of the Eagle Ford and Bakken, which Halcon is drilling in about 12 days.

While presiding over Petrohawk Energy Corp., Wilson led the horizontal discovery of the Eagle Ford in 2008. The play was made in 10 months from conception to commercial well with very little data, he noted. Meanwhile, in the TMS and because of Goodrich’s and Encana’s work already, there is “infinitely more data than when we went into the Eagle Ford,” thus a source of his confidence in that the play has ongoing potential.

-Nissa Darbonne, Author, The American Shales; Editor-at-Large, Oil and Gas Investor, OilandGasInvestor.com, Oil and Gas Investor This Week, A&D Watch, A-Dcenter.com, UGcenter.com. Contact Nissa at ndarbonne@hartenergy.com.