This latest SHALE Play gives an update on all oil and gas developments that are taking place in shale plates across America during November and December of 2022.
Bakken Shale – North Dakota/Montana
Oasis Petroleum and Whiting Petroleum have completed their merger to form “Chord Energy Corporation.” The completed merger creates a scaled, unconventional U.S. oil producer within the Bakken Basin, with premier positioning in the Williston Basin and top-tier assets across nearly 1 million net acres. “Chord will execute a focused strategy to enhance value delivery to our shareholders, and maintain a strong commitment to safety, gas capture and emissions reduction,” remarks Chord President and CEO, Danny Brown. For interested investors, Chord’s common stock is being traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market as the ticker symbol “CHRD.”
Denver/Julesburg (DJ) Basin – Colorado
Consolidation is the name of the game in Colorado’s DJ Basin. Soaring inflation and oil prices earlier this year set the pace for a decline in the number of Denver/Julesburg drillers, but upped the M&A game. Civitas just recently finalized its acquisition of Bison Energy and PDC Energy has done the same with Great Western Petroleum. Integrating should help what was once seven operators active in the DJ Basin (now down to two) see better economies of scale and boosted production going forward.
Permian Basin – Texas/New Mexico
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) delivers more good news in the form of a forecast of increased oil production for the Permian Basin in October. The EIA is looking for around 5.413 million bpd for October, which is a solid increase of 66,000 bpd over September’s numbers. Permian also holds the distinction of leading drilled but uncompleted (DUC) wells across seven regions. Permian also saw an increase to 344 drilling records, up 84 rigs in the past year, reversing a trend of declining numbers seen over the past several months, according to Baker Hughes.
Eagle Ford Shale – Texas
Eagle Ford took some bad press in October with methane cuts being hindered by inefficiencies in natural gas flaring. SilverBow Resources, Inc. added around 5,500 net acres to build out its natural gas and oil portfolio in Eagle Ford Shale and Austin Chalk. CEO, Sean Woolverton, says the deal they reached for the additional acreage “provides extended lateral lengths, increased drilling locations and enhanced returns for our optimized development program.”
Marcellus/Utica Shale – Pennsylvania/West Virginia/Ohio
In a weekly high, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia collectively issued some 40 new drilling permits for Marcellus/Utica in early September. With only 19 the week prior, and 30 in the two weeks following, the weekly pop certainly bears thought. In Ohio Utica, Norway’s Equinor just announced its certification for the natural gas it produces following Equitable Origin’s EO100 standard. The EO100 standard for responsible energy sets relatively high requirements for performance in energy development projects.
SCOOP/STACK Play – Oklahoma
Sooner Trend (oil field), Anadarko (basin), Canadian and Kingfisher (STACK) and South Central Oklahoma Oil Province (SCOOP) plays saw the rise of Kolibri Global Energy, which is adding five well-drilling programs. At least two of the wells should be completed in early October with three in the Tishomingo area of the SCOOP play being prepped to be drilled back-to-back. Kolibri has its work cut out for it with majors like Marathon Oil and Devon Energy already realizing big production numbers earlier this year in STACK and SCOOP.
Haynesville/Bossier Play – Louisiana/East Texas
Comstock Resources, Inc. is investing in its Haynesville drilling program with two newly operated rigs being planned to be completed before the end of 2022. Comstock sells gas directly to “every LNG facility in Louisiana,” says CEO Jay Allison. Comstock, an independent based in Frisco, TX, also just deployed its first natural gas-powered fracturing fleet. The deployment saw a 15% reduction in completion costs over traditional diesel-fueled fleets on the first two well pads observed, reports COO, Dan Harrison.
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Tyler Reed began his career in the world of finance managing a portfolio of municipal bonds at the Bank of New York Mellon. Four years later, he led the Marketing and Business Development team at a high-profile civil engineering firm with a focus on energy development in federal, state, and local pursuits and picked up an Executive MBA from the University of Florida along the way. Following an entrepreneurial spirit, he founded a content writing agency servicing marketing agencies, PR firms, and enterprise accounts on a global scale. A sought-after television personality and featured writer in too many leading publications to list, his penchant for research delivers crisp and intelligent prose his audience continually craves.
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