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Page added on October 23, 2013
Meet Massive New Super-Giant Oilfield in Texas
Early estimate from Pioneer Natural Resources are than it could contain 50 billion barrels of recoverable oil, which would make it the second largest in the world, behind only the legendary Ghawar in Saudi Arabia. _RealClearEnergy
The Spraberry Wolfcamp oilfield is still being mapped out, but so far over 50 billion barrels of oil has been estimated in place. Ultimately, this US oilfield may prove larger than the giant Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia, the largest super-giant in the world till now.
With 50 billion boe in recoverable reserves to date, Wolfcamp is bigger than the Bakken in North Dakota and South Texas’s Eagle Ford shale. Sheffield noted that recoverable reserves are based solely on the Wolfcamp A, B, D, and the Jo Mill. “More reserves are yet to be discovered,” he said.
Geographically, Wolfcamp is comparable to other plays. A unique feature that puts it ahead of other plays is its variety of geological zones. The play contains 3,500-4,000 ft of shales, which is more like 3-4 million acres when considered in 3D space as opposed to 2D space.
“Compare that to the Eagle Ford shale formation, which is about 300 ft deep and the Spraberry Wolfcamp shale, with its 50 billion boe, begins to dwarf the Eagle Ford and the Bakken with 27 billion boe and 13 billion boe, respectively,” Sheffield said.
According to Sheffield, PNR’s success in Eagle Ford has provided a smooth transfer into Wolfcamp. “When compared by phases of development, we see the Wolfcamp trending higher than the Eagle Ford based on activity and production,” Sheffield said. _Oil&Gas Journal
Image Source: Real Clear Energy
Humans have barely begun to tap the vast hydrocarbon wealth resting fallow inside the Earth.
The ongoing global scale-up of shale gas production alone is destined to overturn conventional energy markets — with Russia being particularly inconvenienced.
Human nature leads us to wallow in apocalyptic theories such as anthropogenic climate doom and peak oil. But human nature also compels us to innovate and solve problems.
Not all humans are equally endowed with intelligence and drive. But all humans can benefit from those who are so endowed, if corrupt politicians were forced to release their suffocating grip on human potential.
8 Comments on "Meet Massive New Super-Giant Oilfield in Texas"
rockman on Wed, 23rd Oct 2013 4:41 pm
First, let’s correct some sloppiness. The Eagle Ford Shale is obvious not 300’ deep. That was probably taken from an equally poorly written article in “Energy and Capital”. The Permian shales are at about the same depth and such will cost about the same to develop as the EFS.
Second, the Wolfcamp and other shales are not “new discoveries”. The oil in those formations was discovered in the 1950’s just as it was discovered in the Bakken and EFS. If fact, since oil prices have boomed, activity in the Permian Basin has also boomed but until now the MSM hadn’t paid attention to the area. But the oil production from Permian shales may one day exceed that of the Bakken and EFS. But it will require the same high oil prices that have fueled activity in the other trends. The horizontal drilling and frac’ng tech used out there isn’t new just as it wasn’t new for the Bakken and EFS. All it took was $100 oil to kick the PB off just as it did the other unconventional plays.
We are fortunate to have the unconventional reservoirs to develop. But this opportunity has come about with the surge in oil prices over the last few years. That has been an unfortunate development for the US consumers. I’ll say it again: IMHO the boom in the shale plays, including the ones in the Permian Basin, is the best evidence of the developing peak oil dynamic.
drwater on Wed, 23rd Oct 2013 4:56 pm
Rock,
Would you say the economics of the Spraberry/Wolfcamp are probably about the same as the Eagle Ford or would you expect it to be more expensive per barrel to develop?
J-Gav on Wed, 23rd Oct 2013 6:14 pm
Damn, I sure am going to sleep a lot better knowing Wolfcamp is out there – except I already knew that before. Concerning its depth, Rockman, the author may have got it off Wikipedia – that’s what they say – 330ft. I have no idea if it’s valid or not.
rockman on Wed, 23rd Oct 2013 6:46 pm
Too early to tell how the Wolfcamp et al will run economically. There’s no uniformity in any of these plays: sweet and sour spots, different oil and NG windows, some areas 5 frac stages do the job…other areas you might need 30, etc. There’s a fair bit of base info about the Wolfcamp but horizontal drilling opens up a lot of different aspects that can’t be very well understood until you drill a lot of wells. Consider the Eagle Ford: go too far south, drill deeper and it tends to be NG prone. Too far north, too shallow and oil recover falls off very fast. And not all of the EFS interval is that perspective. Had one of the players explain that in his area the portions of the EFS that had more of the brittle calcite cement produce much better than the more pure clay intervals. Thus he targeted the lower portion of the EFS and ignored the rest of the interval.
Fracture production, even when you get a handle on it, can be difficult to understand: two wells close to each other might recover 40,000 bo each and a well drilled between might produce 400,000 bo. That’s why it’s incorrect to refer to the Bakken, EFS, Wolfcamp, etc. as “fields”. They are “trends”. Often individual wells will produce like a one-well field and drain a very limited area. Which is the good/bad news about these plays. Unlike a conventional field that might produce 20 million bo from X number of wells over 20 years, many of the shale wells will only drain a small area. Produce a significant rate for a very short time and thus many times that X number of wells will have to be drilled to get that 20 million bo. The very old Ghawar Fld will still be producing a lot of oil long after most of the shale wells drilled in the last 5 years have been relegated to stripper levels if they haven’t been plugged and abandoned by then. The future of the unconventional plays is those future wells. The ones already drilled have for the most part seen their much better days pass already.
J-Gav: As far as the depth of the EFS the formation is exposed at the surface to the north and is over 20,000’ far to the south. Most of the developing play is in the 5,000’ to 10,000’ range.
BillT on Thu, 24th Oct 2013 4:19 am
“could contain” … “still being mapped out” … meaningless garbage put out to dredge up a few thousand suckers to buy into their dreams.
BTW: Russia is not going to be ‘inconvenienced’. Most of this dream oil will never be recovered and most of what is, will stay in the US not overseas. Russia is inking mufti-billion yuan deals with China and could care less about American dreams. They can deliver by pipeline, not oil tanker. They can sell in rubles and bypass the Petrodollar totally. They have the advantages, not the US.
Norm on Thu, 24th Oct 2013 9:54 am
Hey hey, ho ho. Gonna buy my Chinese made Hummer, and put USA shale gasoline into it. Then i got the advantage. :o)
rockman on Thu, 24th Oct 2013 8:04 pm
BillT – I agree. I suspect the Russia/China trade dynamic may be the biggest story out there the MSM isn’t paying attention to these days. It might now directly impact the US but should hit thwe other developed oil producers who’ll see much of their current supplies slip off to China. And that upward price pressure should impact the US eventually. I’ll guess the big impact is still 5 to 10 years off but seems inevitable IMHO.
Newfie on Thu, 24th Oct 2013 9:00 pm
I’m off this evening to buy a new Hummer with the biggest engine I can get and will roar off down the freeway. Wou-hoo!!!