This RRC pdf deals with C02 flooding of the San Andres ROZ in Gaines county.
It is also possible to tap some San Andres ROZs without injecting CO2.
https://www.mrt.com/business/oil/article/CO2-Conference-adapts-alon…
Oxy is in it big time now, do not know all the details, yet. But I am about to find out.
I looked at the 3-D around 1999 and it was amazing. Chevron, Apache, (maybe Amarada Hess & me started buying minerals under what looked the best sections.
Originally the 1998 3-d was mostly oil…on the recent 3-d, Oxy saw huge gas play (along with oil) that had not shown up on the earlier 3-d. And they have a sizeable four year project in the making, I mean they jumped in with booth feet. Was told told about three days ago Oxy is building a huge pipeline into that area, not sure where it starts.
The Shale Play company was trying to lease was under three (maybe 4 sections)…they had drilled Shale across the USA, but that doen’t mean they are right on this one.
Amarada Hess was going to put aa huge drilling prospect together on three of these sections…not sure what happened, they moved the rig in on the very last day the lease was to expire & went somewhere else, think over seas. Not sure what happened but several engineers were fired.
So Apache tried to work some kind of deal with Chevron where Apache would do all the drilling for Chevron if they could work out a deal…Chevron declined. You would not believe the large companies Chevron has said ‘not’ to.
Then I was offered $1000. & 1/4 per acre on this particular section, and I thought Chevron would bite on this one, the didn’t. What I was told, the company wanting to lease had located what they thought was a ‘shale play’ under all this…including the gas&oil on 3-d. Not sure who the companies were, i’m sure Oxy was one but their budget increased from $1,billion bucks to $4,billion over the next three years
So I am still trying to figure a lot of this out as far as who is really working together vs acting for others under other names. Think this is going to really surprise some people when it all shakes out.
I’m sure some of this is off-base but a lot of it is solid.
Something else, i haven’t studied the details of a Shale Formation nor understand it.
When the leasing company said they located what appeared to be a decent Shale Formation under a couple of sections they offered a very high price for…I had no idea what they were talking about. But locating a drilling Shale is their big deal and hard to realize there my be smaller pockets of Shale based on maps.
Speaking of Apache & Oxy…I read about a month ago that Apache was a prime target for a takeover due to their stock price being so low and the high expense of basically creating a reliable civilization of far West Texas. Two companies mentioned were Oxy & ?(cant remember, maybe Anadarko,
The company that stood a good chance of taking over Apache fit both profiles. They would become the biggest players in the Permian Basin area (maybe they were talking about this new stuff-I don’t know). But both companies had projects going in Egypt and a few others I cant think of. Think both had a lot going on in Oklahoma to boot.
I traveled thru that area about a month ago going to Presidio. You wouldn’t believe it, I mean that, you would not believe all the pipe lines, booster stations, drilling, building roads all over the place…every phase of an oil operation you can think of.
These next two or three years are going be something to behold.
he Permian Basin is renowned for its stacked plays – up to 3,000 feet of potential producing formations, some of which have yet to be developed.
3000 ft of potential stacked producing formations…that’s simply amazing.
Gaines is county is loaded with the San Andres possibilities your spoke of andI I’ve heard more about Wolfcamp, than the Clearfork. And 3000 ft of stacked payzones.
This could be a landscape changer.
I am wondering what accounts for the very different production numbers? Ring Energy’s Minerva lease well oil production:
Kinder Morgan’s “Tall Cotton” greenfield ROZ CO2 flood produced 83,203 bo from less than one section of land in Dec 2017. To me this is amazing. The land never had any primary production and was considered dry hole territory [“goat pasture”] up until KM identified and developed it if I am not mistaken.
Ring Energy to drill 60 new hz wells this year:
MIDLAND, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ring Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: REI) (“Ring”) (“Company”) today released its operations update for the first quarter of 2018. In the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company drilled 12 new horizontal San Andres wells, one new horizontal Brushy Canyon well, three saltwater disposal wells, and was in the process of drilling two additional new horizontal San Andres wells at the end of the quarter. Of the 13 drilled wells, 12 were one mile long and one was ½ of a mile long. In the first quarter, the Company completed, tested and filed Initial Potentials (“IPs”) on 12 new horizontal San Andres wells – 11 wells which were drilled in 2017 and one well drilled in the first quarter of 2018. The average IP on the 12 completed wells in the first quarter 2018 was approximately 436 Barrel of Oil Equivalents (“BOE”) per day. In addition, the Company had 20 new horizontal San Andres wells which were in varying stages of drilling, completion and testing on March 31, 2018.
As a result, net production for the first quarter of 2018 was approximately 507,000 BOEs, as compared to net production of 266,000 BOEs for the same quarter in 2017, an approximate 90.6% increase, and net production of 422,000 for the fourth quarter of 2017, an approximate 20.1% increase. March 2018 average net daily production was approximately 6,005 BOEs, as compared to net daily production of 3,618 BOEs in March 2017, an approximate 66% increase, and net daily production of 5,352 in December 2017, an approximate 12.2% increase. The average estimated price received per BOE in the first quarter 2018 was $61.50.
Mr. Kelly Hoffman, Ring’s Chief Executive Officer, stated, “The momentum of 2017 has continued into 2018. Our daily BOEPD is up over 66% during the past year, and as we stated on our last conference call, we continue to see double-digit growth quarter over quarter. We are on track to drill 60 new horizontal wells this year, and with results exceeding all of our expectations that growth looks to continue for years to come. We have completed our gas gathering pipeline and are starting to sell our gas associated with the horizontal drilling, instead of flaring it, which will significantly increase our gas sales going forward. We have also started to restimulate some of our older horizontal wells that have gone through their normal production decline and have seen great results. This is very cost-effective, and we have seen daily production increases of over 50% in some wells. The first horizontal well on the North Gaines Property has been drilled, and management is determining the most optimum completion technique. Results have been encouraging, and we are in the process of evaluating the best technique to maximize our returns. Our first horizontal well in the Brushy Canyon formation on our Delaware Basin Property has been drilled and is awaiting completion. We remain focused on our goal of being cash flow positive by year end. With no debt, a strong balance sheet and a talented team behind us we look forward to continued growth and success the rest of the year and beyond.”
About Ring Energy, Inc.
Ring Energy, Inc. is an oil and gas exploration, development and production company with current operations in Texas.
www.ringenergy.com
Safe Harbor Statement
AJ, I would think that Ring would be talking about drilling in San Andres ROZ areas if they were doing so. And with that thought in mind, I would expect that the production variability is tied to subsurface variability (reservoir quality, oil vs water saturation) as well as possible landing zone / completion / mechanical variability.
Without detailed awareness of the area plus some in depth mapping, one cannot know any better about what could be happening here. And I bet that Ring will not be talking about extreme variability in well performance.
A group that I know well has looked at the SA Hz play - their primary conclusion was that reservoir quality / fluid saturations is the key to this play and well performance. And that these SA parameters change very rapidly over short distances in the subsurface.
Thank you, Rock Man. I am trying to get a better understanding of what is going on in Gaines county. This pdf indicates the “Tall Cotton” greenfield ROZ project is currently producing 70,000 bo per month and that it is expected to account for half of Kinder Morgan’s oil production in ten years. This is from an area which never had any primary production and was consider goat pasture. Gaines is called ROZopolis in this pdf.
AJ, did some digging into the Medusa and Minerva production and possible “why the difference” issues.
All this comes from Tx RRC site.
First, they are different lateral lengths and productive sections. Minerva is 7182’ while Medusa is only 4975’. Over 44% more section completed in Minerva.
Despite the fact that these two wells are very close to one another, the TVD of the landing zones are different. Minerva lateral is @ 4905’ to 4060’ TVD.
Medusa lateral is higher in the section - 4787’ to 4750’. This difference is critical as to oil saturations in the target intervals.
Lastly, there appears to be a difference in frac stimulation approach. I got into Frac Focus.org site where the details are located.
The longer lateral (Minerva) used only 1.47 million gallons of water (5 bbls water per foot) but 16.8% of the total frac volume (by weight) was proppant.
The shorter lateral (Medusa) used 2.6 million gallons of water (12 bbls water per foot) but only 5.5% of the total frac volume was proppant.at total volume.
Comparing production numbers only is not the way to compare / contrast wells and performance. This is multi dimensional chess with lots of moving parts and variances between wellbores.
For what ever reason, Ring did things differently on these two close proximity wells. Appears that they are still “searching” for the right recipe’ in this area.
That is fantastic information, Rock Man. I will have to carefully read and re-read your words on Ring’s wells. Thank you. I want to be clear to all that I am not representing that 1/2 of Kinder Morgan’s production in ten years will come from the one existing producing section. I think KM has eight or ten sections under lease. It’s still very big business, though. Slide 56 of 429 in this pdf seems to suggest that Tall Cotton–at least the developed section–is on the CBP: “The #1 Keating is located on the northern edge of the Central Basin Platform, facing the George Allen Field across the San Simon Channel on the southern margin of the Northwest Shelf. Trinity, operator of the George Allen Field, has initiated a peripheral Greenfield ROZ flood initially recovering large volumes of water before recovering oil. 2.2.1.3 Kinder-Morgan’s Tall Cotton Project, a True Greenfield ROZ Kinder Morgan’s Tall Cotton Project, Gaines County, TX: The first true Greenfield project without an associated Main Payzone is offset one mile to the southeast to the #1 Keating and within the same section as the #1-427 Charlene…” It really doesn’t mean much to me if it is on the CBP or in the San Simeon Channel, but I have not seen Tall Cotton placed in the San Simeon Channel on a map. There is a partitioned map of Gaines county in Slide 172 of 429, and Slide 182 of 429 has high oil in place estimates. How much if any of it is a CO2 cheer, I have no way of knowing. I am hoping economically viable ROZs are widespread in Gaines and elsewhere, but especially Gaines 
The PDF and the Tall Cotton info is interesting to say the least. Still need to digest all of that PDF info the numbers are hard to ignore.
I dove into DrillingInfo.com - 59 wells drilled by Kinder Morgan in this one Section. The initial lease production for these wells when they started the project was only 60 BO per day for the entire set of wells. Now over 2400 BOPD with 2615 MCF per day (Feb 2018). See attached info from DI below.
Tall%20Cotton%20Well%20list.pdf
Tall%20Cotton%20Production%20Graph%20Lease%20Basis%20ALl%20wells.pdf
Another comment on the PDF - Tall Cotton is not on the Central Basin Platform but instead is in the structurally low (present day) area known as the San Simeon Channel.
This is essentially a “fairway” or channel that connects the Delaware Basin to the Midland Basin. This channel complex was in place when the San Andres was formed - so the SA section was actually deposited in a deeper water system than up on the shallower CBP complex.
Interesting geologically as wells as with respect to reservoir charge and development.
See San Simeon Channel location on attached PDF. Very limited area.
Minerva lateral TVD is 4905’ to 4960’ - apologize for the type.
A question about the rrc map legends. I am sorry if I missed this in some of the discussions, but I am not very knowledgeable about the oil industry. My sister and I have leased 280 acres and a lot of wells are heading in our direction. Many of the wells have the oil (green dot), but also several of the plugged oil (green dot with a green line through it). What does it mean when the oil is plugged? Appreciate all you are doing to keep people like me informed.
Mike, a plugged oil well is a well that is no longer producing and has been cemented closed more or less.
For those new to oilfield info, remember that not all wells are drilled to the same depth (total depth). So there may be potential horizons located deeper in the section below historical drilled wells.
The only way to determine the depth of historical wells is to dig into the individual well info (if available).
Stopped by a friends house yesterday who is a taxidermist. One other guy was there waiting for his mount.
This guy was quite and reserved, had never seen him around Levelland, and that’s unusual for a small oil town.
He is the foreman for OXY overseeing their west Texas project.
They are building a huge pipeline from Hobbs to Seminole, once that pipeline is complete, you will see OXY all over the place. They went in to co2/flood Wolfcamp, San Andres & another formation maybe Clearfork. That was it, they were going tertiary recovery
They need to hire the best to help them drill & complete the Shale Zones, …several were around the Northeast quarter of the county, close to where the Adair Unit they bought from Amarada for $600,000,000.
Not much drilling is going on in that area right now, let’s see what happens in two years
A guess…Amarada will go all in on their original co2/flood project for a long time before touching the shale in trying to figure out what they have and the best course of action in dealing with Shale formations. They have more diverse Shale formations than any other county I looked at.
>one shale formation that really intrigued me when I first saw it was the way it looked, strange (see a map). Looked a small river/creek starting in the Delaware Basin in eastern New Mex…then thru the Central Basin (directly thru Gaines Co.)…then thru the Midland Basin (Wolfcamp & Woodberry) and ends there. Not sure what its called
just read poster “AJ” excellent comment on this zone about two or three post done…it is fantastic. Do yourself a favor and check it out
Have no idea why such a small Shale zone would cause so much intrigue, everybody seems to be looking for it. In Gaines, Kinder Morgan- Tall Cotton field thought they had tapped into it. They were wrong, the zone is not there.
>there were this little red dotted zone( guessing 15) scattered thru out Gains, not in one centralized location but all over the section. In a few other sections.
>Gaines doesn’t get much press on the Wolfcamp/Wolfberry(?) zone but that is why I got in. Amarada’s largest USA drilling project in 1999 was developing the Wolfcamp & San Andres in about 4 sections surrounding the Adair Unit (northeast section of the county. The section of the map re WolfCamp Shale I looked at started around Crane ending in the a small strip in the northeast quarter. Didn’t look that big and covered a small area of Gaines. (there maybe other Wolfcamp zones in other parts of the state, I didn’t look).
>the portion of the Central Basin shale I looked at starts around Ozona runs north thru the Northeastern part of Gaines then does an immediate U-turn heading back toward Sterling City
>the Delaware Basin-Cherry Canyon overs a large portion of West Texas but mainly the south half of 13. Wonder if this is where a lot of the drilling from the mid-southern half?
Is a lot of the drilling from the mid to southern portion of the county coming from this portion of the Delaware Canyon?
more later on zones in both north & south…but most shale zones seem to be in the NorthEastern part of the county, somewhere near the Adair Unit area.
i’m a novice and going by maps I examine on the internet, so, i’m sure there are particulars I am missing…but I am in the ballpark
FYI - that “small river / creek feature” that is in the AJ posting is not a shale play. It is the San Andres producing trend / San Andres is a carbonate (dolomite / LS) formation and conventional reservoir - total opposite to “shale play”.
As AJ has noted in his postings, some very interesting things going on with the San Andres both with horizontal drilling as well as chasing ROZ targets. CO2 injection is a big part of the latter approach (as well as with secondary and tertiary recovery in non ROZ conventional plays).
PS note on NE Gaines County - there is low thermal maturity in that part of the basin. This will negatively impact any success in true “shale plays”.