American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015 - 48

SpecialReport: Permian Basin Update
ity prices, we may start adding one or two
rigs," he assesses. "But the idea now is to
keep it in sync with four companywide rigs
and ramping up to nine rigs by year end.
Our program allows our Permian and
Rockies asset teams the flexibility to meet
our lease obligations and maintain excellent field operations momentum as we continue to monitor commodity prices."

Oklahoma City-based RKI Exploration and Production LLC entered the Permian Basin
in 2007 through the acquisition of vertical wells and legacy production. However, the
company's aggressive horizontal drilling strategy and development programs have increased its Permian production to 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day out of a companywide total of 32,600 boe/d.

RKI will continue to assess the
Delaware Basin's shallower Delaware
Sand, and deeper Avalon and Bone Spring
formations, but Rawdon calls the Permian Period, Wolfcampian Series Wolfcamp Shale the gem, with multiple stacked
pay zones and tremendous upside potential. "The Delaware Basin Wolfcamp
Shale definitely is a world class, top tier,
horizontal tight-oil resource play," he
enthuses, adding that RKI is developing
the play with six wells on 640 acres.
Technical Advancements
The Wolfcamp remains the primary objective of RKI's 2015 horizontal drilling
program, which Rawdon says is being aided by pad drilling, walking rigs, technical
advancements in rotary steering, optimized
drilling fluid systems, enhanced well trajectory planning, "perf-and-plug" optimization, and "zipper" stimulations.
"Our Wolfcamp program continues to
have excellent economics in a low commodity-price environment because of high
initial production rates, minimal decline
rates, and hefty estimated ultimate recoveries per well, which contribute to a low
dollar-per-boe finding cost," he assesses.
"All our contracted rigs are walking
rigs," Rawdon reveals. "The RKI team
successfully optimized drilling processes
and conducted best practices, which have
shaved an average 15 days off our Wolfcamp drilling curves. The same well took
48-50 days from spud to rig release in

48 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

2014; now our drilling team targets 28-30
days for a typical 15,500-foot total measured depth wellbore."
He adds, "These new drilling and
completion practices, and improved cycle
time efficiencies, are reducing nonproductive time in the drilling and completion
phases of a well, which significantly reduces our $/boe finding costs."
Rawdon notes that RKI's working interests on its Permian acreage averages 96
percent, which he says significantly impacts
the bottom line with the company's robust
Wolfcamp production results. While the
company typically doesn't divulge well test
statistics, he says RKI's results generally
mirror disclosed results of initial 30-day IPs
around 1,000 to 1,700 boe/d. RKI's Wolfcamp laterals average 4,200 feet.
"Of course, Wolfcamp wells have an
excellent gas and natural gas liquids component," Rawdon points out. "On an
initial flowback to sales up 51⁄2-inch production casing, you may see 2.5 million4.0 million cubic feet a day coming out of
a Wolfcamp well. Along with that, you
probably are looking at 700-1,100 barrels
plus of daily oil production. The Wolfcamp is a phenomenal, world class reservoir. It's the gift that keeps on giving."
Although the company has reduced its
active companywide rig count from a peak
of 11 to four rigs, RKI has the flexibility
to ramp up if commodity prices improve,
Rawdon assures.
"If we see an upward trend in commod-

Boosting Recovery
RSP Permian is utilizing multiwell pad
drilling and extended laterals to boost production and EURs in a horizontal drilling
program targeting the Wolfcamp A and B
zones as well as the Middle and Lower
Spraberry, in what the company considers its highest-return areas across 47,000
net surface acres-about 188,000 effective
horizontal acres-in the Midland Basin, according to Chief Operating Officer Zane
Arrott.
"Our primary goal is to drill economically at today's costs and commodity
prices," Arrott says.
The company has more than 2,000 horizontal and 1,200 vertical drilling locations
in Midland, Ector, Andrews, Martin,
Dawson and Glasscock counties, Tx., he
says. The company slowed its completion
pace in the first quarter to allow service
costs to adjust to lower oil prices, completing eight horizontal wells as operator-two
Middle Spraberry wells, four Lower
Spraberry wells, and two in the Wolfcamp
B-as well as three operated vertical wells,
Arrott details.
Vertical drilling targeting mostly Wolfberry pays was discontinued during the
first quarter, while four horizontal rigs
were drilling mostly on two-well pads, he
adds. Other configurations will be utilized
as well, following research over the past
three years into at least seven combinations
of multizone, multiwell pad development
concepts, Arrott says.
Lateral lengths now average 7,4007,500 feet, up from 5,000 feet in 2012-13,
he says, and the company continues to
gauge the success of longer laterals on its
largely contiguous acreage holdings,
which allow for the longer extensions.
"Expectations for strong results from an
evolving drilling and completion program, now in the third phase of its development, continue to be met," Arrott maintains, pointing to recent operating results.
Good Wells
On a three-well pad, Arrott reports,
RSP's Spanish Trail 4817 project tapped
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015

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