American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2018 - 56

SpecialReport: Permian Powerhouse
line. It also has Delaware Basin activity
in Texas' Loving and Winkler counties, a
bit south of the New Mexico state line.
He indicates that the company is running seven rigs-four in the Delaware
Basin and three in the Midland-and plans
to add an eighth in the second quarter.

number of wells so we can see the fracturing
in real time. We have even run fiber optic
so we can listen to the well produce."
RSP also has used oil soluble tracers
to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of its fracturing operations. "We
want an intense frac that shatters more
rock, but we want to keep it close to the
wellbore," Arrott explains. "We want a
higher percentage of the frac closer to
the well so we can put another well closer
than 1,000 feet away. The holy grail is to
stimulate each cluster."
RSP Permian typically uses 14 perforation clusters, 14 feet apart on 210-foot
frac stages. It is pumping around 1,900
pounds of proppant per lateral foot in its
Midland Basin wells and 2,000-2,500
pounds in the Delaware Basin, Arrott details. The company is targeting the Wolfcamp B, Wolfcamp A, Lower Spraberry
and Middle Spraberry zones in its Midland
Basin wells. He says the Wolfcamp B,
Wolfcamp A, X-Y Sand on top of the
Wolfcamp, Bone Spring sequence and

Seismic Surveys
Arrott says RSP Permian holds 460
square miles of 3-D seismic data, which
serves a number of beneficial purposes,
from helping determine where to place
saltwater disposal wells to keeping its
laterals in zone.
"We use that picture when we are
drilling," he explains. "We geosteer all
our horizontal wells. We can make corrections several times a day because it is
important to stay in our chosen window.
We also use it to avoid faults.
"We use pre- and post-stack seismic
inversions to look for the brittleness of the
layers that may baffle the fracs," he continues. "We have used microseismic on a

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Avalon are all attractive targets in the
Delaware Basin.
"It is pretty amazing," Arrott marvels.
"It is like a large stack of pancakes."
As RSP Permian develops all its
prospective zones, Arrott claims to see
the potential for as many as 40 wells a
section. He says the company builds one
long pad, leaving room for the eventual
development of its multiple zones.
RSP Permian drills the majority of its
laterals about 7,500 feet long, Arrott reports, although several of its laterals
stretched on for approximately 11,500
feet. "Drilling a longer lateral isn't hard,"
he assesses. "The difficulty comes from
having enough horsepower when the time
comes to frac the well and drill out the
plugs. The way technology is advancing,
it will not surprise me to see 15,00020,000-foot laterals become commonplace.
But the sweet spot for us right now is
7,500-10,000 feet."
Arrott indicates that RSP's operations
offer him his first-ever view of four pro-

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2018

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