American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2024 - 50

SpecialReport: Eagle Ford Activity
of the Eagle Ford story due to the vintage
nature of the basin, " he observes.
In the meantime, the Trace Capitalbacked
company is working to grow its
drilling inventory by adding proved, undeveloped
reserves to an 8,000-acre, oilweighted
position. Eight new wells are
planned this year.
" We are growing and looking for more
places to drill, " Goudge comments. " We
are a small, nimble company, but our operations
team speaks for itself. "
Drilling that began shortly after the
latest iteration of the company launched
in 2022 has yielded strong results with
IPs north of 2,000 bbl/d on laterals exceeding13,000
feet in length.
" We have had success drilling longer
laterals, which many companies are doing
where they can and maximizing what we
think is the right recipe for the area, "
Goudge says. " Our results have been exciting
to watch and dialing in the right
completion and spacing is important to
maximize value in the Eagle Ford. "
The work of Castlerock and others is
extending the fringes of the oil window
as more companies enter into PSAs to
expand options, Goudge adds.
Much of what the team considers Tier 1
liquids-rich acreage in Karnes County, extending
into LaSalle and McMullen, is being
drilled, with growing interest in Tier 2
acreage in the region effectively becoming
Tier 1 as operators shift priorities. The same
can be said of Tier 3 acreage effectively
transitioning to Tier 2, Goudge notes.
" The west side of the Eagle Ford was
ripe for single-well leasehold early because
large chunks of acreage could be held
with one well, but that is becoming more
developed, and you are seeing operators
push the edges of the play, " he says. " We
have seen extensions in the oil and gas
windows of the play as inventory becomes
more scarce. "
Innovating All The Time
In Webb County, Tx., on the western
reaches of the trend, Ageron Energy LLC
is utilizing wider spacing to get better
results from Austin Chalk gas wells as it
experiments with completion designs to
lower costs and achieve more effective
frac geometries, says CEO Bruce Gates.
Along with gas players across the
country, the privately held San Antoniobased
company is trimming daily production,
to about 62 million cubic feet a
day with output capacity close to double
that, as it ratchets back drilling until the
fourth quarter.
Still Gates is optimistic for the long
term, given a position with 30 prospects
in the deep gas Dorado play alongside
EOG Resources and 11 others. Currently,
Ageron operates 12 wells in Webb County
and in April was doing its first 2024
completion.
" It is a great asset and the production
is phenomenal. We have some of the best
acreage in the trend in the middle of the
Dorado play, " he states. " These are fantastic
wells with reserves of 15 billion20
billion cubic feet equivalent. "
An overall 15,000-acre position includes
oil production of 1,200 bbl/d on
mature positions in Texas' Zavala, Karnes,
DeWitt and McMullen counties. In Webb
County, Ageron has more than 30 undrilled
locations with plans to continue
utilizing wider well spacings of 1,500
feet, compared with about 1,000 feet
for some neighboring operators.
Wider spacing has contributed to better
production from the Austin Chalk, which
is superior to the Eagle Ford bench with
about a third less reserves, Gates says.
However, designs include some wine rack
patterns to tap into both benches, which
are only 400 feet apart in places.
" Because we are doing 1,500 feet in
the Austin Chalk, we will end up drilling
1,500 feet in the Eagle Ford, too, because
we do not want communication directly
above or below our wells, " he says.
In the chalk, the company prefers
8,000-foot laterals where lease configurations
allow that can eventually produce
16 Bcfe-20 Bcfe, Gates details. Eagle
Ford output can be more sensitive to
lateral length with 10,000-foot wells able
to ultimately produce 15 Bcfe, he adds.
The company typically uses 20-30 foot
cluster spacings on 150-160 foot stages,
pumping 3,000 pounds of sand a lateral
foot. However, on an ongoing completion
in April, Ageron experimented with a different
design in hopes of trimming costs
and getting more consistent frac heights
and lengths, Gates explains.
On a 4,800-foot lateral length constrained
by the lease configuration, the
company is deploying cemented sleeves
every 50 feet with basically one cluster
per stage, which lessens downtime as
coiled tubing opens and closes sleeves
during stimulation. Only 40 barrels of
fluid are pumped a minute. The design
worked well on past Austin Chalk oil
wells in the Pearsall in Field in Zavala
County, Gates points out.
Ageron Energy LLC is focused on natural gas targets in the Austin Chalk and Dorado
plays. On one chalk well, Ageron is deploying cemented sleeves every 50 feet with one
cluster per stage, which lessens downtime using coiled tubing to open/close sleeves and
pumps only 40 barrels of fluid a minute during stimulation.
50 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
" I can see where we could get a competitive
advantage using this, but right
now, we are just trying it, " he says. " You
have to be innovating all the time. "
American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2024

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