American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2022 - 42

SpecialReport: Eagle Ford Activity
reports that Ranger continues to upgrade
compression and install jet pumps and
annular gas lift as part of a program of
production management to " bend the
curve " and decrease natural decline rate.
The accomplishments buttress financial
performance that in 2021 put Ranger atop
a list of publicly traded U.S. independents
in EBITDAX margin, due to its high oil
cut, low operating cost and premium product
pricing given its location on the Texas
Gulf Coast, Henke says. The company
stated in its latest earnings release that at
current oil prices it expected more than
$250 million of free cash flow in 2022,
which is helping Ranger self-fund its development
program while simultaneously
continuing to pay down debt.
While the company's focus remains
on drilling new wells, Henke adds that
the Ranger team continues to assess candidates
for refracturing, although none
are currently planned.
Focusing On Two Targets
Relying on seismic and measurementwhile-drilling
data, Crimson Energy Partners
IV is optimizing landings in two
oil-saturated layers of the Lower Eagle
Ford while keeping an eye out for growth
prospects in the basin's southwestern
edge, says President Frank F. Starr II.
Basin veterans from their days at
Austin Chalk horizontal drilling pioneer
Union Pacific Resources, Starr and partner
Tripp Rivers launched Fort Worth-based
Crimson IV in 2016 with a 5,000-acre
position in Dimmitt and LaSalle counties
along the Rio Grande. A subsequent bolton
acquisition from Stonegate Production
expanded that to almost 28,000 acres.
Production from 150 wells, including
34 new wells drilled since acquisition, is
80% oil. This year, 15 new wells are
planned, Starr says.
" We have identified two targets, what
we call the 'Lower, Lower Eagle Ford'
and about 60 feet above that the 'Upper
Lower Eagle Ford,' " he explains.
The lowest bench is the primary target
with 35 feet of pay 7,600 feet down. A
naturally occurring gamma hot streak,
with counts of 135-140, coupled with seismic
logs, help target landings for laterals
up to 10,000 feet in length, Starr says.
The company continues to utilize
bigger fracs of 2,800 pounds of proppant
per foot compared with first-generation
stimulations that pumped only 600-1,000
pounds/foot. Wider stage spacings of 500
feet have been reduced to about 200 feet,
Starr says. Early completions included
Tepumping the first 25% of the lateral
with 100-mesh sand and finishing it with
30/50 or 40/70-mesh.
" We have completely changed that
design to where we are now pumping
about 75% with 100-mesh and tailing in
with 25% of 30/50-mesh, " Starr explains.
Consistent choke management over
the first 60 days around bubble-point
pressures helps prevent gas from breaking
out of solution too early, he says. Within
about 45 days, oil production from the
bench typically averages 500 bbl/d. Over
the timeframe, gas output can climb to
500 Mcf/d, but as management hits the
bubble point, output climbs to 1 MMcf1.5
MMcf a day, Starr says.
Flowback water ranges from 500 to
600 bbl/d, but declines to on the order of
100 bbl/d within a year and eventually to
15-20 bbl/d.
The current focus is on new drilling
for higher returns, Starr says, but Crimson
has done one refrac and identified 50-60
candidate wells for rework down the road.
The company also continues to look
for the right opportunities to add acreage,
Starr says. " We can pick up existing production,
but in general we look at bolting
on acreage to give us a more contiguous
position, which makes it easier operationally, "
he concludes.
Joint Venture Successes
With a combination of step-outs,
infill drilling and refracs, Devon Energy
Corp. and joint venture partner BPX
Operating are busy using the latest
downhole technologies to develop 86,000
Eagle Ford acres in the volatile oil window
in DeWitt County, says Aaron Ketter,
Devon's vice president of the MidContinent
and South Texas.
Production from about 930 wells includes
50,000 barrels of oil and 240
Mcf of gas a day, he relates. This year,
37 new wells are planned, along with
50 completions.
The venture is performing step-outs in
Crimson Energy Partners IV is
focusing its planned 15-well
2022 drilling program on two
oil-saturated layers of the
Lower Eagle Ford in its 28,000acre
position in Texas' Dimmitt
and LaSalle counties.
42 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
areas viewed in the early days of the play
as less economical because of thinner pay
and higher gas-to-oil ratios, but modern
frac designs of 2,700 pounds of proppant
and 50 barrels of fluid per foot, along
with the latest completion technologies,
American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2022

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