Dallas-based Matador Resources received 14 drilling permits for its Stateline asset area in southern Eddy County, N.M., from the Bureau of Land Management. Matador said Dec. 17 it now has 24 permits to drill oil and natural gas wells on federal leasehold it acquired from BLM in its New Mexico lease sale in September 2018. Matador’s Stateline asset area consists of 2,800 gross and net acres and “is one of the key tracts Matador acquired in the BLM acquisition with as many as 74 additional drilling locations.”
Matador planned to move two of its operated drilling rigs to Stateline to begin a multi-year drilling program there as early as late December 2019 and January 2020. Of the latest 14 permits it received, Matador initially plans to drill nine wells from two pads on this acreage – five wells on one pad and four on an adjacent pad – on the eastern side of Stateline. These nine wells are expected to be completed and turned to sales by late 2020Q3.