“Wolfberry”— Wolfcamp/Spraberry - Search and Discovery

AV “Wolfberry”—Wolfcamp/Spraberry: How It Started*
Jim Henry 1
Search and Discovery Article #110164 (2012)**
Posted June 11, 2012
*Adapted from oral presentation at Forum: Discovery Thinking, at AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Long Beach, California, USA, April 22-25, 2012
**AAPG©2012 Serial rights given by author. For all other rights contact author directly.
1 Henry Resources LLC, Midland, Texas (dbarker@henryresources.com)
Making an Uneconomic Play Economic
Improved Drilling Technology - PDC bits and 2 string csg. design decreased 30-day wells to 12 days, saving significant capital
expenditure.
Multistage high rate frac technology allowed us to contact more reservoir than traditional acid jobs or fracs.
Ability to comingle previously uneconomic producing zones into a combined flowstream.
Sustained higher oil price makes play economic. We need about $70/bbl.
Henry Results
Leases Acquired
Economic
Uneconomic
Total
110,000 acres
220,000 acres
330,000 acres
Reserves Found
Henry proved up a total of 400 million barrels of oil equivalent – about 13% of
the total reserves.
Wolfberry
The Wolfberry trend will ultimately recover about 3 billion barrels of oil -- making it the largest discovery in the Permian Basin in the
last 50 years.

References
Handford, C.R., 1981, Sedimentology and genetic stratigraphy of Dean and Spraberry formations (Permian), Midland Basin, Texas:
AAPG Bulletin, v. 65/9, p. 1602-1616.
Montgomery, S.L., D.S. Schechter, and J.C. Lorenz, 2000, Advanced reservoir characterization to evaluate carbon dioxide flooding,
Spraberry trend, Midland basin, Texas: AAPG Bulletin, v. 84/9, p. 1247-1273.

“WOLFBERRY”
WOLFCAMP/SPRABERRY
How It Started
AAPG
4/23/12
Jim Henry

Permian Basin
Fig. 1
Midland

STRATIGRAPHIC COLUMN
SYSTEM SERIES Midland Basin
Dewy Lake
Ochoa Rustler
Salado
Tansill
Yates
Whitehorse Seven Rivers
PERMIAN Guadalupe Queen
Grayburg
Word San Andres
Glorieta
Clearfork Upper Leonard
Leonard
U. Spraberry
Wichita L. Spraberry
Dean
Wolfcamp Wolfcamp
PENN
Vigil Cisco
Missouri Canyon
Des Moines Strawn
Atoka Bend/Atoka
Chester U. Miss
MISS
Meramec Osage L. Miss
Kinderhood Kinderhook
Upper Woodford
DEVONIAN Lower Devonian
U. Niagaran U. Silurian
SILURIAN L.Niagaran Fusselman
Alexandrian
Wolfberry Stratigraphy
Target
Interval
Fig. 2
Carbonate
Facies
Mixed Facies
Silica Facies
Shale Facies

N – S Depositional
Strike Cross Section
The rock column
is comprised primarily
of thinly bedded
turbidites and debris
flows.
Fig. 3
Clearfork
Spraberry
Dean
Wolfcamp
Strawn

W
Depositional Model – Wolfcamp Carbonates
Fig. 4
E
Coarse Grained
Fine-Grained
Central
Basin
Platform
Areas 2 & 3 Area 1
ARCO
Sweetie Peck
+
Chickadee
CMS

Fig. 5
Spraberry Field
Montgomery et al.

Fig. 6
FIGURE 5

Wolfberry Play Area
Fig. 7
Wolfberry Trend
1
2
3
ARCO & CMS
Sweetie Peck
Chickadee
2
1
3

Odessa
Fig. 8
Wolfberry Chronicle
Wolfcamp producers
drilled before 1997
(316 wells)
Wolfberry producers
drilled 1997-2002
(554 wells)

Odessa
Fig. 9
Wolfberry Chronicle
Wolfcamp producers
drilled before 1997
(316 wells)
Wolfberry producers
drilled 1997-2002
(554 wells)
Wolfberry producers
drilled 2003-2011
(2866 wells)

Typical Decline Curve
Fig. 10
FIGURE 6
BBLS of OIL EQUIVALENT per DAY
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
WOLFBERRY FAIRWAY PRODUCTION
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49
Months on Production

Fig. 11
• Leases Acquired
HENRY RESULTS
– Economic 110,000 acres
– Uneconomic 220,000 acres
Total
• Reserves Found
330,000 acres
Henry proved up a total of 400 million barrels of oil
equivalent – about 13% of the total reserves.
WOLFBERRY
The Wolfberry trend will ultimately recover about 3
billion barrels of oil -- making it the largest
discovery in the Permian Basin in the last 50 years.