1. New Life from Old Plays, New Frontiers
Oil and Gas in Texas:
New Life from Old Plays, New Frontiers
William A. Ambrose
May 16, 2017
TCEQ Trade Fair

2. Acknowledgments

3. STARR State of Texas Advanced Oil and Gas Resource Recovery
Funding from Texas Legislature, and logistical support from the General Land Office
Biennium: 5.5x Revenue Positive Factor
Mission: Increase income to the State through working with operators to…
Define, characterize, assess, and expand new hydrocarbon plays
Recommend drilling deeper untested reservoirs
Recommend secondary or tertiary recovery programs
Recommend recompletions
Help locate new wells (infill, step-outs, wildcats)

4. Outline Oil and Gas: Future Trends Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Unconventional reservoirs: origin and distribution
Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Major hydrocarbon-producing provinces
Permian Basin
Wolfcamp & Spraberry Formations, Pennsylvanian
Other Texas Oil and Gas Trends
East Texas Field, Eagle Ford Shale

5. Estimates of 21st century World energy supplies
Billion barrels oil equivalent
Alternatives
Billion barrels oil equivalent yr-1
Coal
Natural Gas
Oil
1900
2000
2100

6. rocks occur in trapping
Conventional Oil System
Earth’s surface
seal
seal
Oil is trapped
where reservoir
rocks occur in trapping
configuration
Sandstone
reservoir rock
About 1.5 to 3 mile depth
Tens of miles
Mudstone
Modified from Eric Potter (BEG)

7. Unconventional Oil System
Earth’s surface
Source rocks generate oil and gas and remain in place
About 1.5 to 3 mile depth
Tens of miles
Mudstone
Modified from Eric Potter (BEG)

8. Shale Resource Plays Success Factors Thick organic rich layer(s)
Organics preserved (anoxic conditions at sea bottom)
Buried and heated, organic-rich layers: millions of years
Oil (60-120° C), Gas (>120° C)
Source rocks actively generating oil and gas
Elevated pressures
Relatively thick and hydrocarbon-rich target zone
Regionally extensive (100’s of square miles)
Rock brittle not ductile (limited clay content)

9. Global Shale Resource Plays
Unproved technically recoverable: ~7,580 Tcf & 419 Bbbl
Permian Basin
Resources Estimated
Resources Not Estimated
EIA (2017)

10. Micro planktonic organisms preserved on ancient ocean or lake floor
Organic Matter: Source Rock
Micro planktonic organisms preserved on ancient ocean or lake floor

11. Oil Droplet from Source Rock
Newly-formed oil droplet
Source Rock (being heated)

12. Orange dots are 20 nm in diameter
Organic Matter: Pores
50 µm
Human Hair
Orange dots are 20 nm in diameter
T.P. Sims #2; 7625’
200 nm
0.2 m
Orange dots are 0.02 microns in diameter
I showed you the big picture in the previous slide. This is the small nanno picture, and arguably as important or more important as the ‘big picture’. The trick is not the potential resource (there is plenty) but how do we get the resource out of the rocks. This slide shows just how small the pores in the rocks holding hydrocarbons are, and fundamentally why we need long horizontal wells and fraccing to liberate, flow and produce the hydrocarbons. This is also a fundamental point for why we need basic research. These are different rocks than conventional reservoirs and to be able to improve resource estimation, recovery and optimize production, we need to understand the basics of where are the hydrocarbons, how do the HC’s flow out of these rocks, how do these rocks fracture when fracked etc.
0.2 microns
Modified from Reed (BEG) 12

13. U.S. Natural Gas Production
and Projections
2015 40
Shale gas and tight oil plays
Tcf (trillion cubic ft) 20
Other
Tight gas
Alaska
Lower 48 offshore
Coalbed methane
2000
2010
2020
2030
2040
Modified from EIA (2015)

14. Outline Oil and Gas: Future Trends Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Unconventional reservoirs: origin and distribution
Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Major hydrocarbon-producing provinces
Permian Basin
Wolfcamp & Spraberry Formations, Pennsylvanian
Other Texas Oil and Gas Trends
East Texas Field, Eagle Ford Shale

15. Active gas and oil well areas
Oil & Gas Map of Texas
Recent peak activity
Granite Wash
Barnett Shale
>120,000
active gas wells
Wolfberry Play
>293,000 active oil wells
Overlapping
Active gas and oil well areas
Eagle Ford Shale Play
200 miles

16. Outline Oil and Gas: Future Trends Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Unconventional reservoirs: origin and distribution
Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Major hydrocarbon-producing provinces
Permian Basin
Wolfcamp & Spraberry Formations, Pennsylvanian
Other Texas Oil and Gas Trends
East Texas Field, Eagle Ford Shale

17. Permian Basin ~15% of U.S. oil production (EIA, 2017) Permian Basin
~60% of Texas oil production
(RRC, 2017)
Cumulative production >36 million bbl oil & 100 Tcf gas
>2 million bbl oil & 8 Bcf gas per day
(EIA, 2017)
200 miles

18. Schematic Stratigraphy Permian Basin
Central Basin Platform
Delaware Basin
Midland Basin
Clearfork
Wolfcamp
5/18/2018

19. Apache’s Alpine High Discovery, Delaware Basin
Resources: 3 billion barrels oil, 75 Tcf gas 4,000-5,000 of stacked pay
Ward
Reeves
Pecos
Apache
Acreage
10 miles

20. Outline Oil and Gas: Future Trends Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Unconventional reservoirs: origin and distribution
Texas Oil and Gas Plays
Major hydrocarbon-producing provinces
Permian Basin
Wolfcamp & Spraberry Formations, Pennsylvanian
Other Texas Oil and Gas Trends
East Texas Field, Eagle Ford Shale

21. East Texas Field Discovered in 1930 Combination trap
Strong water drive
Depth ~3,500 ft
~31,000 wells
4.3-acre spacing
7.03 Bbbl oil in place
5.42 Bbbl produced
77% recovery efficiency
Base of Austin Chalk
200 ft
Sabine Uplift
Base of Woodbine
~2 miles

22. Lowstand Incised-Valley Fill Model
Buda
Austin
Fluvial
Deltaic
300 ft
2000 ft

23. Prominent Stringer Sands
Woodbine Cross Section S N 1 2 3
1 mi 2 3 1
Top of Woodbine
Prominent Stringer Sands GR SP
Res GR SP
Res GR SP
Res
Austin
Fluvial
Upper WB
Lower WB
Deltaic
Buda

24. Development Strategies
● Well Deepening
Highstand Deltaic Stringers – Untapped Oil
● Redesigned Waterfloods
Inject water into poorly connected sand stringers
● Polymer Flooding
Divert water into poorly swept sands
● Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)
CO2 Injection

25. Well Deepening–North Pilot Area (west half)
Net Sandstone
Well A
Monthly Production (STB)
2000 ft
1992
2008
Well B
A: 125 BOPD
Monthly Production (STB)
1992
2008
B: 20 BOPD

26. Eagle Ford Shale Play
Oil
Condensate
Gas
50 miles

27. Daily Eagle Ford Oil Production 2008 through January 2017
Barrels
Modified from the Texas Railroad Commission (2017)
1,000,000
500,000
January
2017
2008
2009
2011
2013
2015
Cumulative: ~1.658 billion barrels

28. Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk
Upper Eagle Ford
Clay Mudstone
Lower Eagle Ford
Carbonate
1 in

29. Lower Eagle Ford Shale: Thickness
Hentz and Ruppel (2010)
Outcrop
San Marcos
Arch
25 mi
≥ 200 ft
<25 ft
Maverick
Basin
C.I. = 25 ft
100 mi

30. Eagle Ford Shale: Estimated Ultimate Recovery
EUR
350,000- 1,500,000 bbl
EUR
<50,000 bbl
20 miles
Modified from Ikonnikova et al. (2016)

31. Expected Oil Production by Price
Eagle Ford Shale
Expected Oil Production by Price
800
Exp. Total & no. wells
at $100/bbl
11.3 Bbbl & 93,000
600
10.9 Bbbl & 83,000
8.2 Bbbl & 47,000
Oil production (MMbbl/yr)
at $80/bbl
400
6.5 Bbbl & 32,000
1.9 Bbbl & 9,000
200
2010
2020
2030
2040
Modified from Ikonnikova et al. (2016)

32. Summary World Oil & Gas: Significant Future Production
Unconventional reservoirs
Offshore Discoveries
Texas Oil and Gas
Permian Basin
Other Texas Oil and Gas Trends
East Texas Field
Eagle Ford Shale