Longest wells in Texas stretch miles across
Most horizontal wells are measured in feet, but some can literally be measured in miles.
Drilling permits filed with the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state agency that regulates the oil and natural gas industry, reveal the total depth of a well — the combined length of its vertical and horizontal sections. But the Austin oil field data company Enverus took a deeper dive into hydraulic fracturing and completion filings to focus on the horizontal portions of a well to determine the 10 longest horizontal wells drilled in Texas this year.
Horizontal wells are best measured by their gross perforated intervals, the portion of the lateral that is hydraulically fractured using sand, water and chemicals. Enverus used filings submitted by operators to the Railroad Commission for its calculations.
“This is a measure of horizontal part of the wellbore that is hydraulically fractured to produce oil and gas,” said Bernadette Johnson, Enverus vice president of strategic analytics. “This is the part of the well where the oil and gas flows from the surrounding rock. Perforated intervals have increased in recent years and resulted in wells with more production.”
The Permian Basin of West Texas dominated the list with eight of the 10 longest laterals. The Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas and Haynesville Shale of East Texas each had one.
Surge Energy, a Chineseowned oil and natural gas company headquartered in Houston, drilled and completed the longest lateral in Texas so far this year.
A horizontal well on the Suege’s Medusa Unit C 28-09 lease in the Permian Basin’s Borden County measured nearly 17,000 feet, or about 3.2 miles. Completed in July, production figures for the lease are yet not available, but the company gets bragging rights for the longest horizontal well in Texas — at least for now.
Midland oil company CrownQuest Operating came within a 100 feet of Surge Energy’s record with a horizontal well on its Hang Nail E lease in Martin County that measured 16,857 feet. Tulsa exploration and production company WPX Energy ranked in third place with a horizontal well of 16,557 feet on its CBR 22-27 C lease in Loving County.
In fifth place, Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma drilled the only Eagle Ford well among the longest horizontal wells, with a natural gas well that extended 16,020 feet on its PGE Dos lease in Webb County.
Irving oil major Exxon Mobil ranked sixth with a lateral that measured nearly 16,000 feet on its LHS Ranch lease in Upton County in the Permian Basin. In ninth place, British oil major BP drilled a horizontal well of 15,833 or about 3 miles on its Titan Gas Unit lease in Angelina County, the only well in the Haynesville shale to make the Top 10 list.