CONSOLIDATING THE YESO

摘要

In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of Permian Basin oil and gas,New Mexico’s Northwest Shelf has,until now,escaped public notice.It is not the Delaware or Midland basins.Nor is it part of the Spra-berry-Bone Spring-Wolfcamp triumvirate of 21st century,headline-producing geology.But,welcome anyway to the Northwest Shelf’s Yeso,the slope margin dolo-mitic and time-coterminous equivalent of the Delaware Basin’s Bone Spring to the south.The Yeso occupies that netherworld between conventional and unconventional geologic characteristics that have garnered economic notice with the application of modern horizontal drilling and multistage fracturing.At less than 5,000 feet,Yeso reservoirs are shallow,which means current breakevens below $30 oil on $4 million horizontal wells.Production finds a ready outlet to the Artesia,N.M.,refining complex.Oil and gas interest in Yeso-related reservoirs(primarily Blinebry)and Paddock formations of Leonardian age)dates to the 1960s.Privately held regional companies such as Yates Petroleum Corp.and Chase Energy Corp.were among the most active Yeso participants early on.Interest was rekindled after 2011 when ConocoPhillips Co.drilled 70 vertical Yeso wells near Maljamar,N.M.,for evaluation.Historically,vertical Yeso wells were located along the narrow east/west Abo Reef trend between Carlsbad and Artesia,N.M.,targeting the slope down from the Northwest Shelf into the Delaware Basin.Current horizontal drilling has moved activity back north of the reef margin edge.