Local companies detail drilling plans

Oklahoma-based oil and natural gas producers plan to drill close to home this year as the state’s SCOOP and STACK fields continue to attract interest from companies throughout the oil patch.

Executives from Oklahoma City’s largest oil and natural gas producers this week provided more details on their 2017 drilling plans, highlighting efforts just a few miles from their corporate offices.

At Chesapeake

Chesapeake Energy Corp. executives this week said the company is expected to spend $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion on drilling activity this year, up from the company’s budget of a range of $1.65 billion to $1.75 billion last year.

The largest portion of that budget is earmarked for the south Texas Eagle Ford, but the company is expanding its operations in Oklahoma. Chesapeake is expected to drill about 100 new wells in Oklahoma, including about 60 in the Oswego formation, which is part of the STACK play.

“This is an exciting area for us,” CEO Doug Lawler said Wednesday at the Credit Suisse Energy Conference. “It’simportant to our strategic oil growth.”

Chesapeake teams have drilled about 15 wells in the Oswego, and the wells are producing more than 80 percent oil and natural gas liquids, he said.

At Devon

Across town, Devon Energy Corp. executives this week said they plan to spend $2 billion to $2.3 billion on drilling activities this year, with much of that concentrated on its top two areas of southeast New Mexico and central Oklahoma.

In Oklahoma, Devon teams are studying how many wells can be drilled on a single area, including wells in different directions and different depths.

“Ultimately we believe we could have spacings as high as 20 to 30 wells in a single spacing unit when considering the Woodford and Merimac together,” Hager said in a conference call with analysts on Wednesday.

The company is averaging six wells per section now.

At Continental

Continental Resources Inc. last month said it has boosted its drilling budget about 73 percent to $1.9 billion in 2017. In Oklahoma, the company is expected to finish 132 wells and operate an average of 16 drilling rigs, with 11 in the STACK and five in the SCOOP. The company plans to average four completion crews in the state.

Central Oklahoma has emerged as one of the fastest-growing oil fields in the country. The area has attracted interest from producers, services companies and pipeline and storage firms as companies in recent months have expressed growing interest in the state’s rock.

Improving oil prices have fueled the growth, but operators say Oklahoma also has benefited from access to pipelines and other infrastructure as well as the stacked layers of oil and natural gas producing rock that allows companies to drill into multiple rock layers from one surface location.