EER Geology Team Attends SWS AAPG 2022 Convention
The Southwest Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (SWS AAPG) hosted their 2022 Conference at the Midland County Horseshoe. Endeavor supported the event as a Platinum Sponsor. The conference, “Resology: Combining Scales of Geology to the Reservoir,” was attended by oil companies, as well as researchers, geoscientists, entrepreneurs, and students. Event activities included expert speakers, technical sessions, networking, and exhibitors.
The EER Geology Team was notably involved in the conference. Ben Davis, Senior Staff Geologist, served as the General Convention Chair. He was presented with a gift for his contributions to making the conference a success.
Andrew Quarles, VP of North Region Assets, delivered a luncheon keynote, “Evolving Strategies for Horizontal Well Development in the Midland Basin, Texas: An Operator’s Perspective.” His presentation offered a year-to-year review of the evolution of horizontal well development in the Basin. “Every year shows we tried something different to improve results,” stated Andrew.
His timeline started at the beginning of the Spraberry Trend development with a series of vertical wells drilled between 1948 and 1950. These early developments showed significant initial promise but then quickly declined. Andrew noted that despite the Spraberry Trend being called the “world’s largest uneconomical oil field,” Endeavor and other operators “kept plugging away at” the field with vertical wells through the 2000s.
The field’s significance and impact changed with the beginning of horizontal well development in 2012. Currently, over two percent of the world’s oil stems from the Midland Basin making it a vital source of energy. The basin boasts a “staggering” 15,000 square miles of rock which “offers lots of choices on well placements.” Andrew pinpointed three primary choices an operator needs to make when developing the 3000-foot-thick Spraberry Trend: 1) Number of benches, 2) well spacing, and 3) timing between well developments. He noted that these decisions are complicated by (or tradeoffs are required due to) above-ground constraints, such as commodity prices, land, or access to capital.
Andrew reviewed EER’s three rounds of development between 2017 and 2021 of the 26 wells in the two Dickenson Drilling Units in Martin County. Key milestones in the evolution of the Dickenson developments were the success of the Woody 6-35 and a better understanding of Fracture Driven Interactions (FDI).
Endeavor celebrates the leadership our people continually show! Thank you to our Geology Team for your standout contributions to the 2022 SWS-AAPG Conference!
About SWS AAPG: The Southwest Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (SWS AAPG) purposes to advance science and geology relating to the exploration for and development of petroleum, natural gas, and other energy minerals in the southwestern region of the United States. This non-profit is comprised of eight local geological societies within Texas and New Mexico: Abilene, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, North Texas, Roswell, San Angelo, and West Texas. To learn more about the society, visit www.swsaapg.org.