American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2024 - 56

SpecialReport: Rockies Playmakers
more than 800 horizontal wells in the six
Lower Cube benches and more than 15
from multiple operators in emerging
Upper Cube, which includes the Lower
Garden Gulch, the Upper/Middle/Lower
Douglas Creek and the Black Shale.
Produced oil from both verify development
independence, Vogel says, and
SM Energy is poised to de-risk horizontal
potential in deeper targets demonstrated
by historical vertical production with test
wells in progress.
" We also understand that the waxy
nature is in high demand by refiners and
upper-end lubricant markets, Vogel remarks.
" Lease operating expense runs
slightly less in the Midland Basin largely
due to less water handling. Put all those
together, and we will be able to deliver
strong margin per boe produced. "
Williston Basin Focus
With 32,177 net acres in the Williston
Basin, Prima Exploration Inc. is extending
laterals, improving efficiencies and keeping
an eye out for potential acreage additions
amid basin consolidation, says
CEO Brian Law.
" We are hopeful there will be more
opportunities in the future after some of
these large merging companies consider
divesting noncore assets, " Law comments.
Prima also has properties in the Powder
River and Delaware basins, but the focus
is chiefly on the Williston, where oil accounts
for 85% of its gross production
from 53 operated wells primarily in North
Dakota's Williams, Divide and McKenzie
counties, and Richland and Roosevelt
counties in Montana.
The 44-year-old Denver-based company
has plenty of room to run with a
well inventory for two-mile laterals of
76 in the Middle Bakken and 56 in the
Three Forks, Law details.
Prima has drilled an average of six
wells annually in recent years, and this
year has launched its first three-mile
lateral program with two planned wells
in western North Dakota and two in
eastern Montana, all north of the Missouri
River, he says.
Active in the Williston since the mid56
THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
1990s, the company will remain committed
to it, partly because the basin has substantially
less federal acreage and a more industryfriendly
regulatory environment than other
basins in the Rockies, Law comments.
In the Powder River, Prima operates
the federal Table Mountain Unit in Johnson
County, Wy., producing from the Shannon
with a mix of conventional and horizontal
wells on waterflood. The company says
it is keeping an eye out as larger neighbors
effectively de-risk the Niobrara and Mowry
next to a Prima position that includes 50
potential locations.
" These source rock reservoirs have the
potential to transform the Powder River
into a world class basin, " Law concludes.
San Juan Mancos Wells
Through common ownership with
Epic Energy LLC of Aztec, N.M., Walsh
Engineering & Production is adding people
and expertise to prepare for growth
in the San Juan Basin from an anticipated
renewed interest in natural gas from the
Mancos Shale, says Walsh President
John Thompson.
Nationally, soft natural gas prices and
drilling eventually will give way to the
need for more gas supply, and for operators
with assets in the Mancos and other San
Juan pays that means the possibility of
connecting to a planned Mexico LNG
terminal that will sell gas to the Pacific
Rim,
Thompson says. Sempra
Infrastructure's planned liquefaction project
at Energía Costa Azul is only 60 miles
south of San Diego and pipelines from
San Juan, which supply California, already
connect to system that will feed the facility.
In addition, a representative for a
Salt Lake City artificial intelligence
data center planning to build its own
natural-gas fired power plant recently
called about potential gas supplies,
Thompson divulges.
Although the majors and large public
independents have shifted away from the
San Juan, newcomers and committed
players also will benefit from growing
gas demand for power generation in general,
including in California, he suggests.
To prepare for more business and
expand contract operating and engineering
services for Epic and other independents,
Walsh in recent years has grown from a
handful of employees to about 100.
" Being a low-cost operator has definitely
been the name of the game, and
we think we are poised to hopefully be
in the right spot here, " Thompson says.
He says about 30 Mancos Shale wells
have been drilled across the northern
San Juan. Epic, which has 483 wells on
64,772 net acres, is partnering with NueVida
Resources of Dallas, which put together
a position in La Plata County,
Co., and in August was completing two
Mancos wells with plug-and-perf, slickwater
fracturing designs.
Other Mancos wells have been drilled
with strong results, says Thompson, pointing
to Logos Resources' Rosa Unit No.
64H in Rio Arriba County, N.M., which
last year posted an IP-30 of slightly less
than 25 million cubic feet a day.
The shale is located at a depth of
6,500-6,800 feet, with laterals ranging
from 1.5 to 2.0 miles with recoverable
reserves as high as 20 billion cubic feet.
Basinwide, about 50 trillion cubic feet of
gas has been recovered, with the possibility
of that much more being produced in the
future, Thompson says.
" We are on the front edge of the development
of the dry gas Mancos play, which
is going to be another historic chapter for
the San Juan Basin, " he states.
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Completion & Production Chemistry
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2024

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