No. of Recommendations: 8
Every major producer in the Permian is working on ways to increase the recovery from the non-conventional production. Non-conventional is basically the combination of horizonal wells and high pressure "fracking" to crack open the very tight shale and enable the oil contained therein to flow to the well bore.
How well they'll succeed will depend upon the technology they're able to develop to improve recovery - now below 10%.
ExxonMobil talked about their goal of doubling recovery from current levels. In their corporate plan presentation, they had a video talking about one development that increases recovery - a better proppant to keep deeper cracks in the formation open. Behind the speaker are wall boards listing 20 of the circa 50 technology programs XOM has underway to accomplish their goal. People familiar with this process can stop the video and read the titles of most of them. I was startled to see that one of them was to drill extreme length laterals - 20k!!
The link below will take you to XOM's recent Corporate Plan update. If you scroll down a little, you'll find the video, along with two others, concerning this development.
corporate.exxonmobil.com - Delivering unmatched value in a league of our ownIf successful, these combined developments will not only increase reserves, they will significantly reduce the number of wells and fracking operations needed for a given oil production. It can probably also be applied to existing wells with re-fracking. They will also permit more efficient surface facilities.
Demand will set the levels of production from the Permian - not politics. The industry will find ways to meet this demand.
People interested in this industry may also enjoy the other two videos. One talks about the Guyana developments by XOM. The third about the remote operating centers they use to control the drilling and fracturing operations in real time - including using AI. They are produced for the layman to understand.
The complete plan presentation is obviously available on this link - one I hope BRK folks are reading - the original point of this thread. The different segments are easy to follow. After all, they were written to communicate to Wall Street analysts - so you have to keep it simple. (grin)
