With more than a decade of development in the Midland and Delaware basins, there are more limitations that operators will have to work around, said Apache Corp. CEO John Christmann at Hart Energy's SUPER DUG Conference & Expo.
ConocoPhillips views the Permian Basin as a “growth engine” within its Lower 48 portfolio, the company’s Midland Basin Vice President Nick McKenna said during Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG event in Fort Worth.
The SUPER DUG Conference & Expo is in full swing in Fort Worth, Texas, and speaker Diamondback President Kaes Van’t Hof is with Hart Energy's Jordan Blum to talk about Diamondback's pending merger with Endeavor Energy Resources, development philosophies going forward and future plans in the Delaware.
As operators scour the Permian Basin for M&A opportunities, they’re keeping an eye on a tepid divestiture market. Family-owned oil companies also stand out among the pack of private inventory holders remaining in the Permian, according to Enverus Intelligence Research.
Vital Energy anticipates making 42 double-long, horseshoe-shaped wells where straight lines would have made 84 wells. The estimated savings: $140 million.
KeyBanc Capital Markets reports SM Energy’s wells “measure up well to anything being drilled in the Midland Basin by anybody today.”
Exxon Mobil plans to drill longer, more capital efficient wells in the Midland Basin after a major boost from the $60 billion Pioneer Natural Resources acquisition. Data shows that Exxon is a leading operator drilling 4-mile laterals in the Permian’s Delaware Basin.
The basin is deeper, gassier, more geologically complex and more remote than the Midland Basin to the east. But the Delaware is too sweet of a prize to pass up for many of the nation’s top oil and gas producers.
Marathon Oil, Occidental, Continental Resources and others are reaching under the Permian’s popular benches for new drilling locations. Analysts think there are areas of the basin where the Permian’s deeper zones can compete for capital.
Oil and gas dealmaking continued at a high clip in the first quarter, especially in the Permian Basin. But a thinning list of potential takeout targets, and an invigorated Federal Trade Commission, are chilling the red-hot M&A market.