American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2022 - 40

SpecialReport: MidCon Conventional
New Horizontal Target
In Caddo County, Ok., Lynx Oklahoma
Operating LLC is developing the
Hoxbar/Marchand as a new horizontal
target, creating renewed excitement about
the potential of multiple tight oil formations
that were drilled vertically with variable
success by other operators years ago.
Chief Executive Officer Nelson Bolen
says the Oklahoma City-based company
has a huge advantage over those early
vertical development efforts: the ability
to leverage drilling and completion techniques
perfected in horizontal resource
plays along with a better understanding
of the subsurface geology.
The first well in Lynx Oklahoma Operating's
Hoxbar/Marchand program, the
Captain 6-31-11-12 No. 1 HXL, has produced
225,000 barrels of crude oil in 30
months, Bolen reports.
" We are expanding the horizontal opportunities
beyond just pure shale targets
to formations often overlooked for horizontal
development, and we think Oklahoma
provides a lot of opportunity to do
that, " he says.
In mid-April, he said Halliburton was
stimulating a Lynx Hoxbar/Marchand well
and drilling was underway on another.
Next up is an offset to the Captain No. 1
HXL well.
Using legacy expertise from geologist
and Senior Vice President Al Warner's
40 years identifying prospects in the area,
the company continues to scrub old vertical
packages through a tedious approach to
mapping 20,000 acres by hand and computer.
Lynx's technical approach differs
from other operators in that Lynx splits
the target interval into individual sand
members and then maps those members
across areas with minimal control, expanding
the drilling opportunities. The
process helps identify separate prospects
in thinner sands and determine precise
lateral targets, says Matthew Hatami,
chief operating officer and engineer.
Lynx's footprint includes other Hoxbar
targets, the Red Fork, the deep Woodford
and Meramec shale dry gas targets, which
Lynx also is working, but the team's current
attention is on the Hoxbar/Marchand
crude oil, Hatami emphasizes.
At a depth of 9,000-10,000 feet, the
play varies from less than 10 feet in
thickness up to 70 feet, and the company
has been able to land laterals in thinner
sands without issue, he says.
With inflation, costs per well in April
ranged from $5 million to $7 million,
Bolen notes, but the company continues
to secure pipe and supplies to drill. Lateral
lengths have averaged 7,000 feet, although
upcoming wells are targeting 10,000 feet.
A different completion approach reinforced
by extensive research for the
right chemical additives includes 200foot
plug-and-perf stages with 20 clusters
and two diversion drops for each stage,
Hatami explains.
To open all perforations, Lynx measures
instantaneous shut-in pressure (ISIP)
at the beginning of each stage. " The
brief shutdown to take an ISIP creates
a small 'water hammer' or momentum
change that helps open perforations and
enhance injection across the stage, "
Hatami comments.
Frac sand volume is limited to 1,5001,800
pounds per lateral foot, although
higher volumes may lead to better production
results going forward, he adds.
Oil is 40-45 degrees API gravity. Although
an initial production rate of 1,000 barrels
a day would be possible, Lynx restricts
production to 50 barrels per hour initially
to avoid flowing back sand and damaging
the formation, Hatami says.
After initial decline, production remains
relatively flat for an extended period, as
demonstrated by the Captain well, he
concludes.
Setting New Paradigms
BKV Corporation is setting new paradigms
in the Barnett Shale with longer
lateral new wells and refracs yielding initial
production rates up to 15 times the output
gauged just prior to restimulation, says
Chief Operating Officer Eric Jacobsen.
The Denver-based company purchased
Lynx Oklahoma Operating LLC is expanding horizontal opportunities in the emerging
Hoxbar/Marchand tight oil play in Caddo County, Ok. The first well in the company's
Hoxbar/Marchand program, the Captain 6-31-11-12 No. 1 HXL, has produced 225,000 barrels
of crude oil in 30 months.
40 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
Devon Energy's Barnett Shale assets in
October 2020. The deal included more
than 330,000 gross acres and 4,200 producing
wells, encompassing an estimated
remaining inventory of 400 long-lateral
locations and more than 1,200 refrac candidates.
Over 200 refracs have been completed
to date since BKV assumed operatorship,
Jacobsen says.
" The Barnett is alive and well and
there is a lot of meat left on this bone, "
Jacobsen enthuses. " That point is punctuated
by the fact that at BKV, according
to Enverus, we completed more refracs
American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2022

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