Page 9 - NorthAmOil Week 29
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NorthAmOil PERFORMANCE NorthAmOil
Surge completes longest Permian lateral
PERMIAN BASIN
SURGE Energy US Holdings announced last week that its wholly owned Moss Creek Resources Holdings subsidiary had completed the longest known lateral in the Permian Basin.
Surge said the Medusa Unit C 28-09 3AH well had a total horizontal displacement of 17,935 feet (5,467 metres), or 3.4 miles (5.5km), a er being drilled to total depth and completed. e completion consisted of 52 hydraulic fracturing stages, for which the company used TTS Slic- FracTM diverter technology to place 2,200 pounds (998kg) of proppant per lateral foot. Crews with Universal Pressure Pumping and GR Energy Services were involved in the completion, with the former providing pumping services and the latter covering wireline.
“ e successful drilling and completion of the longest known lateral in the Permian Basin demonstrates the strong culture of innovation at Surge Energy,” stated Surge’s CEO, Linhua Guan. “We are extremely proud of our techni- cal and operations teams in this record-setting achievement.”
e Medusa Unit C lease is located about 8 miles (13 km) north-east of Vealmoor, Texas. Initial production (IP) results from the well, which is targeting the Spraberry formation, are due by the end of the third quarter of 2019.
Surge is a US subsidiary of China-based Shandong Xinchao Energy, and was formed in 2015. So far this year, the Houston-based com- pany has led for 55 drilling permits from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state oil and gas regulator. All of the permits were for projects in the Permian Basin, and all but one targeted the Spraberry formation. Surge is targeting the Permian’s Midland sub-basin, which has gener- ally been less proli c than the Delaware sub-ba- sin in recent years, but is still seeing booming production.
e announcement of the record well comes as drilling activity has been more muted in the Permian this year. Nonetheless, the achievement illustrates that operators in the basin are contin- uing to push the boundaries of what was previ- ously considered possible in shale drilling.
POLICY
BOEM announces Gulf lease sale
GULF OF MEXICO
US Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced on July 18 that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will o er 77.8mn acres (314,845 square km) for a lease sale sched- uled for August 21 in the Gulf of Mexico. Lease sale 253 will include all available unleased areas in the Gulf ’s federal waters.
The sale will comprise roughly 14,585 unleased blocks, located between 3 and 231 miles (5-372km) o shore, in the Gulf ’s West- ern, Central and Eastern planning areas. e blocks in question are located at water depths of 9 to 11,115 feet (3-3,388 metres). Blocks subject to a congressional moratorium, as well as those adjacent to or beyond the US Exclu- sive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the area known as the northern portion of the Eastern Gap, are excluded from the sale. Also excluded are whole and partial blocks within the current boundaries of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
e sale will be the h o shore sale to be held under the 2017-22 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. e pro- gramme includes 10 region-wide lease sales in total in the Gulf. Two Gulf-wide lease sales are scheduled to be held each year that the pro- gramme runs and these sales include all available
blocks in the combined Western, Central and Eastern Gulf planning areas.
Interest in Gulf lease sales has been com- paratively muted in recent years, with many operators staying away from the Gulf as a result of the high costs involved in deepwater exploration and production. However, activity in the region is starting to pick up, while a chal- lenging onshore operating environment in the Permian Basin and beyond may start driving drillers to look elsewhere. ose players that already have operations beyond shale, and per- haps already hold blocks in the Gulf, are the most likely to take a further interest in o shore development.
“ e Trump administration is laser-focused on developing our domestic o shore oil and gas resources in an environmentally conscious manner, and the Gulf of Mexico is front and centre for that development,” said Bernhardt. His comments may also signal that the US government acknowledges the importance of growth beyond shale, though Trump admin- istration o cials have been talking up o shore drilling since the president took o ce. is has translated into limited o shore activity to date, but the government will be hopeful that circum- stances are changing.
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