American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2018 - 97

SpecialReport: Rockies Profile
Right-Sized Fractures
Drilling longer laterals, however, is
only part of Extraction's successful equation. "One size doesn't fit all," Jacobsen
cautions. "We use the right size frac for
each area. We use deep surface understanding and a lot of engineering to determine what delivers the highest production per section. We are using a more
enhanced fracture with increases in sand
and fluid, and we are more aggressive on
our flowback.
"We also have become more efficient
at drilling out frac plugs to give us good,
clean holes," he adds. "It depends on the
gas-to-oil ratio and the porosity of the
rock, too. Those are all things we take
into account."
He says Extraction uses a mix of artificial lift, ranging from gas lift to compression, plunger lift and rod pumps, depending on the area.
Jacobsen says he believes the Wattenberg offers the lowest cost structure
of any horizontal play with a per-well
cost for a two-mile lateral of about $5
million.
He acknowledges that the DJ Basin
has faced bottlenecks, especially in gas
processing. "But Extraction is uniquely
positioned with our acreage to take advantage of DCP Midstream's Mewbourn
3 and O'Connor 2 plants, as well as
Western Gas and another third-party
processor," Jacobsen observes.
"From August through April 2019, all
new wells can go onto the DCP system,
but we can pivot between gas processors,"
he continues. "We have been able to
grow our oil production consistently while
working around the gas processing constraints. The line pressure has impacted
us, but we have been able to maintain
our targets."
Jacobsen says he believes the 1.2 Bcf
of gas processing capability coming on
line among DCP Midstream, Anadarko
and Discovery in the next year will
"unlock the basin."
Extraction's acreage is concentrated
around Greeley and down the west I25 corridor to Boulder and Broomfield
into Adams and Arapahoe counties, Co.
That includes its South Hawkeye development south of the Denver International Airport.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation holds 400,000 net acres in the Denver-Julesburg Basin
with 4,000 remaining drilling locations. The company averages eight wells per pad in the
basin with a type curve of 690,000 barrels of oil equivalent a well. It will average running
ﬁve drilling rigs this year along with three completion crews.

Focus On The DJ
Thanks in part to its Land Grant acquisition of more than 7 million acres
from Union Pacific Resources in 2000,
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is one
of the largest producers in the Rockies,
with acreage stretching from the DJ Basin
in Colorado to the Green River and
Powder River basins in Wyoming as well
as the Uinta Basin in Utah.
But Anadarko's primary focus in the
Rockies is on the DJ Basin, according to
Carrie Horton, vice president of DJ Basin
development.
"We have simplified our corporate
portfolio," she states. "Most of our Rockies
investment is in the DJ Basin."
Anadarko holds approximately 400,000
net acres with 4,000 remaining drilling
locations in the DJ Basin, and Horton
says the company has plans to drill around
300 wells each year there well into the
next decade.
"We definitely are in the manufacturing
mode in terms of efficiency," she declares.
"We know what wells we plan to drill
for the next three years. We have improved
costs by 55 percent, increased the number
of wells per pad by 100 percent, and reduced our cycle time by 50 percent. We
also benefit from the experience gained
by drilling this many wells. We try to
keep steady, qualified completion crews."
Horton, who says Anadarko now averages eight wells per pad, notes its type
curve is 690,000 boe per well. She says

the Niobrara offers multiple benches, so
the company's pads are always a mix of
the various Niobrara benches as well as
the Codell formation.
Anadarko has 3,800 vertical wells
and 1,500 horizontal wells producing in
the DJ Basin. It averaged more than
260,000 boe/d in the first quarter, an 8
percent increase over first quarter 2017,
Horton reports. The company estimates
it has more than 2 billion boe of net resources on its acreage. She adds that
Anadarko will average five drilling rigs
this year along with three completion
crews that utilize equipment with noisereduction technology.
Anadarko also operates its Integrated
Operations Center in Platteville, Co.,
which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 365 days a year. It provides
real-time remote-monitoring capabilities
for more than 8,000 horizontal and vertical
wells and 3,700 tank facilities.
Horton says Anadarko and its sponsored
midstream master limited partnership, Western Gas Partners LP, have midstream infrastructure as well, providing gas gathering
and processing, and oil stabilization.
One reason for Anadarko's success,
according to Horton, is using data analytics
for finding the right recipe for each formation and each area of the basin. She
says Anadarko has successfully tested
extended reach laterals with a record of
13,000 feet. It still is tweaking higher
fluid injections and optimizing stage spacJULY 2018 97

American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2018

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