Houston-based Apache Corp. said Feb. 26 it currently does not plan to drill additional wells on its disappointing shale discovery Alpine High near Balmorhea in west Texas. Clay Bretches, CEO of Altus Midstream, Apache’s pipeline spinoff, said, “Apache has no current plans for future drilling at Alpine High… Our financial results in 2019 were impacted by declining activity levels at Alpine High. As a result, Altus took an approximately $1.3 billion impairment charge on its gathering, processing and transmission assets.” Oil & Gas Journal said Apache “posted a roughly $3 billion writedown on the Alpine High project.”
Apache still appears positioned to continue producing from its existing wells, but at yearend 2019 the company had no rigs drilling in Alpine High. Bloomberg said the play “fizzled when it turned out to hold more natural gas than oil.” Alpine High was announced in September 2016, but it later became apparent that it was far richer in natural gas and its byproducts than more-valuable oil. The company placed 24 wells on production in Alpine High.
Apache said its Permian region produced 103,000 barrels of oil per day and 288,000 boed in 2019Q4. Eight rigs drilled and completed 56 gross wells. Altus Midstream reportedly will look for new customers to fill its pipes.