Nabors/Apache recently finished drilling a well on a portion of our family property. in this case a single well. We are told fracking is beginning. What is the process from this point on? I am kind of curious as to what would happen with natural gas. Don't think there is a pipeline in our area yet, but our landman said Apache would not be flaring any gas. We are southwest of Toyah a couple of miles.
Larry – Apache recently (May 3rd) placed into service (partially) a 30-inch natural gas pipeline flowing gas north, crossing I-20 in the vicinity of McAlpine Road Exit 13, ~6 miles west of Toyah. Mind locating your property survey for us? Thanks -- Later -- Buzz
Guessing this pipeline is destined to connect to the wahoo pipeline or whatever it is called going from Fort Stockton to Hobbs.
I believe around section 32, block 71.
Apache is building its own infrastructure with gas and oil gathering lines to their own refineries and sales lines
to the Texas Gulf coast for their LNG tanker loading facilities and AMOCO Chocolate Bayou oil refinery (Apache
is the name AMOCO Production Company took up when they expanded in the 80s.
In addition to the plants, refineries, salt water disposals, frack water tank/reservoirs and water wells, they
are building their own gas fired electricity generating facilities and 3 phase 777 KVA transmission lines
all over the area from Balmorhea to Kent and north to Dell City...and west to Cornudas and Siera Blanca
in Hudspeth county. They will be independent...not on the ERCOT system. They will vertically integrate
their operations in west Texas wherever possible to minimize operating costs and maximize profits on the
oil and natural gas they produce in Reeves, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Pecos counties. They are proving the boundaries of the Alpine Height, Delaware Amalgamated stacked shale plays from between Fort Stockton and Alpine, Balmorhea to Toyah, to Dell City, west to Cornudas/Sierra Blanca. The whole area, the Delaware Basin contains about 2 and 1/2 times the proven oil and gas the entire Permian basin east of the
Pecos river has ever produced.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apache ends up building one or more company cities along IH-20 and IH-10 west of
Pecos and Balmorhea for oilfield personnel to live, work, and have their families.
near Verhalen
Look along CCR-336 as it parallels FM2903....that's going to be the backbone of Apache gas/oil gathering infrastructure.....and they've got it staked out already for a right of way East across 2903 to Hwy 17 where it becomes Barilla road....and the right of way continues east on Barilla road to FM2007
along it to the Hwy 285 crossing where it can split and one line goes to the WAHA plant at
Coyanosa, the other to the new plant Energy Transfer is building on the east side of Hwy 285 near
the junction of Reeves and Pecos counties.
They will HAVE to build several more Apache gas and oil products refineries and more 30 inch lines to
the Texas Gulf Coast to get their products to market. You might even see a spur line and tanker
car loading facility west of Pecos...maybe just inside Culberson county on the rail line.
near Verhalen
Thanks for the insight. Wow.
Is Verhalen still a town of a single (nice) residence and a deserted store. Used to stop at that store coming home from Balmorhea or dove hunting.
Yep...still pretty much the same. They took Dwayne Cape to the old folks home...he's got dimentia
now....he owned that General Store and Post Office there. Now a Mexican guy bought it and is
fixing it up to be a convenience store, beer stop, and have a small RV park around it.
Noble Energy has their own man camp on 5 acres on the west side of Hwy 17 at Verhalen and
they have their Verhalen field office on CCR 331 just west of the north boundary of Verhalen.
Can't really call it a town. Only other business there is the office for Madera Valley Water Supply.
near Verhalen
Lawrence my family has land next to the intersection of 10 and 20. What kind of activity are you seeing there?
Apache, Noble, COG, Shell Western, and Oxy are the primary leaseholders of that area, but drilling/development
is going to be in 2018-2019 because Apache is concentrating on the infrastructure....electricity,
gas/oil/produced water gathering and transport lines. They are also building several natural
gas plants in that area and will have to build oil refineries to produce fuel oil, diesel, jet fuel,
and gasoline to be pumped to other areas of the USA to be retailed. Because of the Colonial
products pipeline interruption due to hurricane Harvey....there will be diesel, gasoline, jet fuel
oil refineries springing up all over this area and new distribution transport pipelines going to the west coast and the east coast from this area. Liquified Natural Gas, LNG, plants will be built
in this area (I hear a total of 40 plants are planned as of now) to produce co-mingled product
to be shipped all over the USA. We're talking about a 2 Trillion dollar energy gathering, refining,
transportation unified system for the entire USA over the next 5 to 10 years. That's what Trump's team is counting on to super stimulate the economy and provide tens of millions of
jobs for our people.
As they develop the area around the junction of IH10 and IH20....I think they (oil companies)
will decide to build a city that caters to oil and gas development employees because, frankly, the
services and access to housing provided by Pecos and the surrounding cities is pitiful. I've heard the name that's proposed for the proposed city is Delaware City.
Hang on to your property at that location, it's gonna be worth a lot.....but, please remember
for the oil and gas exploration companies to develop this area and employ so many people,
the land owners need to cooperate with them. Farmers and Ranchers CAN conduct their
operations around and in the midst of oil and gas exploration/production/refining.
I'm a big advocate of raising vegetables and fruit trees in greenhouses and enclosed orchards
to provide food year around in this area....and solar power the facilities so they are vertically
integrated and self sustaining. The oil companies will be glad to help develop food production
in the area to help feed their employees and all Texans. We can do the same thing with small
animals for meat, eggs, and milk. West Texas is a GOOD location for a mighty agricultural
supply effort with the help of the oil and gas companies.
In short, my message is that oil and gas companies and the farmers, ranchers, landowners
need not be enemies....but SHOULD work together as partners to develop energy AND
food production in this area while maintaining our space around each of us...so we aren't crammed together like sardines like other places in the USA. And Harvey reminds us to
prepare for disaster even out here. We should have stockpiles of supplies and transport
equipment for the people of this area should we need it for earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes, etc....and someplaces to take people to get medical attention and have a place to stay until they can rebuild. West Texans don't HAVE to be like the rest of the USA.
near Verhalen
Lawrence, I like your way of thinking. In California they have certainly mixed oil production and agraculture. I think wind energy could also be explored. My contact at Apache has been very stingy with details about the company’s plans for our property. We own both dirt and minerals. 60 a.c. of 160 square.
You should also think about integrating a solar farm into your plans for your land.
You can get your own commercial solar panel arrays from www.civicsolar.com for about
70 cents per watt. I've bought the Canadian Solar 325 watt poly silicon panels for that price
and am taking my farm off grid to be completely independent and stand alone.
Don't get talked into having some company lease purchase panels to you and tie you to the
grid.....in Texas, since we are independent of the national power grid, they DO NOT HAVE to buy
your produced power from solar panels. But, there are ways to get the oil companies
to help you build a solar farm for your use and take the excess energy you produce into their
system to power their pumpjacks and plants....and they will pay you for the electricity you
produce. Like I say, work WITH the oil and gas companies.
You can make that 60 acres pay off on many levels. Email me for more discussion if you like.
near Verhalen