Eastern Barnett combo play turns horizontal

Horizontal wells have proven successful in an area of the North Texas Barnett shale combo play previously designated for vertical wells, prompting EOG Resources Inc. to change its mix of 2010 wells.

Aug. 11, 2010

2 min read

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 11 -- Horizontal wells have proven successful in an area of the North Texas Barnett shale combo play previously designated for vertical wells, prompting EOG Resources Inc. to change its mix of 2010 wells.

Meanwhile, successful drilling on the play’s west side led EOG to expand its definition of the core of the combo play to 150,000 net acres from 125,000.

EOG, which holds 25,000 acres on the play’s eastern side marked for vertical drilling, estimated ultimate recovery will reach 260,000 bbl of oil, 412,000 bbl of natural gas liquids, and 3 bcf of gas from the Settle 1H horizontal well based on the first 3 months of production. The well cost $4 million to drill and complete, yielding a rate of return greater than 100%.

Another promising east-side well is the horizontal Richardson 3H in far western Cooke County went on production at 325 b/d of oil and was still cleaning up after frac treatment.

In Montague County, initial rates are 344 b/d and 2.5 MMcfd of gas at King 1H, 323 b/d and 1.7 MMcfd at Olden B-1H, and 500 b/d at Alamo B-6H. Rates at all four wells are restricted to minimize frac sand flowback. EOG’s working interest is 92-98% in all of the wells.

EOG revised its 2010 Barnett combo drilling plan to 200 horizontal and 34 vertical wells from 126 horizontal and 120 vertical wells originally, saying the switch will likely increase its overall rate of return.

The company is running 14 rigs in the play, where several multiwell patterns are on after-frac flowback.