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Northern Paradox Basins Rediscovered by Zephyr

Zephyr Energy of the Rocky Mountains announced on Dec. 8 that its field testing of the State 16-2LN-CC well at its Paradox Basin project in Utah provided a substantial basis for further development.

Zephyr reported that after 23 days of production testing the well demonstrated the ability to extract a larger hydrocarbon resource than initially estimated. It is now planned to outfit the well and facilitate the sale and/or export of hydrocarbons.

The research may have allowed the discovery of eight high-grade hydrocarbon reservoirs under the opportunity that was initially being investigated. A total of 200 wells could be drilled, creating a potential resource of 125 million barrels of oil equivalent.

This milestone was achieved when the company's State 16-2LN-CC horizontal well became the first with a hydraulically-stimulated completion to flow hydrocarbons in the Northern Paradox Basin.

A rate-constrained daily rate of 716 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) was achieved with limited pressure drawdown and a rate-constrained maximum rate of 1,083 boepd.

Based on initial simulation modeling, Zephyr concludes that 2,100 boepd plateau rates would be possible when the well is fully equipped and not rate-constrained.

In an investor presentation, Zephyr said that gas rates may reach plateaus of 10 million square cubic feet per day and 500 boepd of liquids.

Zephyr's predrill estimates of up to 0.85 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) are significantly lower than the growth potential of State 16-2LN-CC resulting from production testing.

To maximize this potential, hydraulically stimulated resources must be developed instead of assuming that they are naturally fractured, as was thought before the evaluation of the most recent well data.

Zephyr forecasts that the reserve will produce strong economics for its new gas condensate wells based on a highly successful appraisal of the reserve. According to the company, up to 200 well locations are potentially available across the eight identified overlying reservoirs.

In light of the new production forecasts and realized oil prices of $65 per barrel and $3 per thousand cubic feet of gas, Zephyr calculates the well's net present value to be $12.5 million at a 10% discount rate (NPV-10).

Due to the substantial potential for an increase in project size, Zephyr's Board has committed to exploring the idea of a multi-well drilling program in the near future, as additional drilling could help better define and unlock the considerable potential value of this asset.

Zephyr's Board, however, will not rush into an investment in Paradox, according to Zephyr CEO Colin Harrington, and will only deploy company capital if the risks/rewards are favorable.

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BP's South Haynesville Natural Gas Passed MiQ’s Certification with Flying Colours: a Straight-A Student

BPX Energy achieved an admirably low level of methane emissions, ranking among the best performing players in Haynesville Shale, around 0.05%! And MiQ awarded the company with an A grade certification. BPX very well may be one of the cleanest natural gas producers in all of Texas.

Crescent Energy closed the acquisition of Uinta Basin assets in Utah that were previously owned by EP Energy for $690 million, a few hundred million dollars below the original price. The accretive deal increases Crescent's Rockies position and adds significant cash flow and a portfolio of high-quality oil-weighted undeveloped sites. In addition to its acquired Uinta assets, Crescent's pro forma year-end 2021 provided reserves totaled 598 million boe, of which 83% was developed, 55% was liquid, and its provided PV-10 was $6.2 billion.

Oil output in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is supposed to go up 88,000 bbl/d to a record 5.219 million bbl/d in June, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in its report on May 16. Additionally, gas productivity in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20 Bcf/d and 15.1 Bcf/d in June, respectively. Given that this growth has been expected, recent global market changes make forecasting the output even more challenging. Learning how production will change is easier with early activity tracking, a new service recently launched by Rextag – Pad Activity Monitor. With the help of PAM, you are able to monitor well pad clearing, drilling operations, fracking crew deployment and completions with new data collected approximately every 2 days. Additionally, it cuts down activity reporting lag times by at least 98%, from 120-180 days down to just 5-8 days. In order to access reports, charts, tables, and mapping visualizations via Rextag’s Energy DataLink use a web-based application allowing users to filter, download and identify activity on a map or data table. Moreover, customers will be able to set up daily, weekly, and monthly email report notifications.

The EIA forecasts that total output in the main U.S. shale oil basins will increase 142,000 bbl/d to 8.761 million bbl/d in June, the most since March 2020. Oil productivity in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is supposed to go up 88,000 bbl/d to a record 5.219 million bbl/d in June, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced in its report on May 16. In the largest shale gas basin, the productivity in Appalachia in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia will grow up to 35.7 Bcf/d in June, its highest since beating a record 36 Bcf/d in December 2021. Gas output in the Permian Basin and the Haynesville in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas will rise to record highs of 20 Bcf/d and 15.1 Bcf/d in June, respectively. Speaking of the Permian future output, putting hands on upcoming changes in production has recently been made easier with the new Rextag's service - Pad Activity Monitor. Thanks to satellite imagery and artificial intelligence, customers are able to monitor the oil and gas wells and are provided with near real-time activity reports related to drilling operations. However, it is noticed that productivity in the largest oil and gas basins has decreased every month since setting records of new oil well production per rig of 1,544 bbl/d in December 2020 in the Permian Basin, and new gas well production per rig of 33.3 MMcf/d in March 2021 in Appalachia.

No sooner had the crude prices soared above $100/bbl than the industry professionals believed in an incredible growth of drilling activity in North America’s largest shale patch. Analysts speculate that additional output of 500,000 barrels of oil daily would become a significant part (4%) of overall U.S. daily production. That is going to flatter oil and gasoline prices. Drilling permits in the Permian Basin are persistently growing, averaging approximately 210 at the beginning of April. Moreover, the permits trend is noticed as an all-time high as a total of 904 horizontal drilling permits were awarded last month. Nowadays, learning and analysing the current situation and predicting the future development become easier with early activity tracking, a new service recently launched by Rextag. Rextag's Pad Activity monitor (PAM) allows you to see well pad clearing, drilling operations, fracking crew deployment and completions with new data collected approximately every 2 days with the help of satellite imagery and artificial intelligence. While the increase in drilling will result in higher production, U.S. shale producers will have to overcome several hurdles including labor shortages and supply constraints.

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