ConocoPhillips executive vice president Tim Leach said Feb. 3 the company intends to move from one- to two-mile laterals on its newly acquired Shell acreage in Delaware Basin to improve rates of return and generate a 30 percent improvement in cost of supply. Leach said Conoco will need to acquire offsetting acreage in certain areas to make the longer laterals feasible.
“The biggest opportunity in the near term is transitioning from one-mile wells to two-mile wells,” he told Enverus. “And that’s with our partners out there in the field. All those companies that we’re partnered with we have done deals with in the past to core up and drill longer laterals… That’s the low hanging fruit. We are in conversations with all of them. We’ve made transactions on some of those properties already.” He said Conoco has transitioned to its drilling, casing and completion design with Shell’s previous four-rig program to lower operating costs.
They are missing out big time in the western part of the southern Delaware Basin in Reeves county and
going into Culberson county. When Clayton Williams liquidated his holdings for 7.5 Billion, his widow and
son took over his operation at his death and he had already leased up over half the mineral rights in
Culberson county, especially south of the interstate highway BECAUSE Clayton knew the stacked shale
plays of the southern Delaware continued into Culberson county and down to the Rio Grand river.
Developing the western half of the southern Delaware in Reeves and Culberson counties is where the
hot action will soon be proven be.