Apache Prepares To Boost Production At Permian’s Alpine High
The Houston-based company reported production at Alpine High jumped 23% to average 32,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in second-quarter 2018, compared to a year earlier. By the end of July, production had already climbed by 70% to 54,000 boe/d as optimization continues.
“For 2018 our Alpine High production is on track to achieve 45,000 boe/d, which is the midpoint of our previous guidance,” Apache CEO John Christmann said on a conference call Aug. 2. “The benefits of pad drilling coupled with continual progress on well costs and well productivity are driving a positive bias to our production outlook for next year. As a result, we anticipate that 2019 production from Alpine High will trend toward the high end of 85,000 to 100,000 boe/d guidance range that was established in February.”
The emerging oil and gas play sits in the Delaware Basin, mostly in Reeves County, Texas. The company announced the discovery in September 2016, estimating 75 trillion cubic feet of rich gas and 3 billion barrels of oil in place in the Barnett and Woodford formations plus potential in the shallower Pennsylvania, Bone Springs and Wolfcamp formations. Apache puts its drilling inventory for the play at more than 5,000 wells, but Christmann called the inventory count “conservative” based on results of landing zone and spacing tests.