Jan. 27--The University of Texas at Arlington is the beneficiary of unusually strong production from six natural gas wells on its campus.

The university said Monday that it received a check for $528,495 from Carrizo Oil & Gas, its first royalty payment from production that started Nov. 4. The university said about 40 percent of the money will go toward undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships, and the rest to endowed faculty positions and campus improvements.

Richard Hunter, a spokesman for Houston-based Carrizo, said the wells averaged 3.7 million cubic feet of gas a day in November. That's close to double the average first-month production for Barnett Shale wells.

Other property owners receiving royalty payments from the wells include the city, the state and First Baptist Church of Arlington. Carrizo said it issued more than $675,000 in royalty checks just for November production.

Hunter also said the wells are maintaining their production better than expected, 3.5 million cubic feet a day per well. Natural gas wells typically decline rapidly in their first year, falling by about half from their initial rate.

Hunter said the first six wells at the company's drill site on the southeast corner of UT-Arlington extended to the northwest and are almost entirely beneath university property. Carrizo has mostly finished drilling two additional wells from the site and expects to drill as many as two dozen eventually, although it has scaled back its schedule in light of sharply lower natural gas prices.

"They're the best wells we've got in the Barnett Shale," Hunter said. He said Carrizo participates in 189 wells in the field and another 26 awaiting completion or connection to a pipeline, mostly in southeast Tarrant County.

Rusty Ward, UTA's chief financial officer, said the strong production is good news but is offset by the recent plunge in natural gas prices. Futures peaked at $13.58 in July but averaged $6.70 in November.

Carrizo paid $391,000 for the right to explore for natural gas at the campus. It also made a one-time donation of $400,000 to the university. UT-Arlington receives a 27 percent royalty on any gas extracted from its property.

JIM FUQUAY, 817-390-7552

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