Apache Corp., the second largest producer in the Permian, is laying down horizontal wells across all of its Permian holdings and producing economic results. But, surprisingly, it is hydraulically fracturing waterflooded properties on the Central Basin Platform employing horizontal laterals. 

Fields that have been producing for 90 years, such as TXL South, North McElroy and Shafter Lake, are experiencing reinvigorated production. “Vertical wells in McElroy Field were drilled just five acres apart and were producing a 1.5% oil cut. We’re now drilling horizontal wells with up to 5,000-foot laterals in a diagonal pattern to miss the vertical wells, and we’re bring them on at a 10% to 15% oil cut,” says Apache Permian regional vice president John Christmann. “They meet our rate-of-return hurdles.”

“We’re taking some of these fields back to levels they haven’t seen in 15 years,” says Christmann. “It tells us as an industry our waterfloods have not been as effective as we might have thought.”