Delaware Basin

The time it takes for a shale producer to drill a well has been a major focus for the past decade. A new report says the industry should place equal weight on how long it takes a well to actually deliver first oil.

The move will bolster Austin-based Parsley’s holdings in the Delaware Basin, giving it a contiguous 120,000 net acres opposite of its original Midland Basin focus area.

After a planned acquisition of Goodnight fell through, private equity firm Tailwater Capital is boosting its total investment in the water midstream company to more than $500 million. Goodnight recently signed five long-term contracts with producers in the Delaware Basin and the Bakken.

The $600-million deal sees NGL net around 580,000 B/D in disposal capacity and 680,000 B/D in transportation capacity via 19 saltwater disposal wells and a network of produced water pipelines. Hillstone also holds an aggregate of more than 110,000 acres in the Delaware Basin.

The well count and completion intensity of US tight oil and gas operations have grown in recent years, and rising pressure from environmental regulations means that produced water management has become a key focus for operators.

Noble’s first row of wells in its massive Mustang project is helping increase the operator’s DJ Basin output, and similar results are soon expected in the Delaware Basin.

Another reminder that it costs more to coax the same amount of oil from new wells as for older wells nearby, with a closer look at the big plays and how the wells are completed.

Finding water for hydraulic fracturing and then finding a use for it when it flows back are critical engineering problems to solve in the booming Permian Basin.

Production and proved reserves in the Permian Basin’s Wolfcamp Shale and Bone Spring Formation are reaching new heights, and a new assessment from the US Geological Survey indicates the industry is just scratching the subsurface when it comes to what may be technically recoverable.

The SPE Liquids-Rich Basin Conference in Midland, Texas, merged topics that have dominated recent industry discussions: technologies centered on big data, interwell communication, and Permian Basin production.