Those in the oil and gas industry know the producing regions well; we know right off of the top of our heads exactly where the Bakken, Niobrara, Permian, Marcellus, Utica and the Eagle Ford are when someone says those names. Visions of maps dance in our heads.
That is why when someone mentioned the Anadarko region the other day, different things popped into my head and I got a little nervous…
These were my thoughts: It this that old producing region – it can’t be that, can it? No one usually talks about that. Are we talking about the checkerboard ownership that was once UP land out west? I am losing it? Wait…did he say Oklahoma? It is that old play!
Bottom line: Sometimes when we don’t talk about something very frequently, we tend to forget it.
So let’s briefly break down the Anadarko region in a quick refresher:
The Anadarko region is not a “new” play per se, it is an old producing region or what they call a “legacy” producer that is seeing new life and experiencing a so-called “uptick in activity.”
It turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks…
Conveniently, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) just released its August 2017 Drilling Productivity Report for Key Tight Oil and Shale Gas Regions and added the Anadarko region to their report! The full report can be found here. Sometimes these things are just serendipitous – turns out the EIA and I are on the same page.
Geographically, the Anadarko region is basically a tidbit of northwest Texas and the western half, give or take, of OOOOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain! I couldn’t help myself…
Specifically, according to the EIA report, the Anadarko region includes “24 Oklahoma and 5 Texas counties” and it “has become the target of many producers using improved drilling and completion technology to this already well-established oil and gas producing region.”
In addition, the EIA report credits the Anadarko region with a monster number of operating rigs: 129 operating rigs to be exact – “second only to the Permian region with 373 operating rigs.”
Obviously the big dogs when it comes to barrels of oil produced per day are still the Niobrara, Eagle Ford and Bakken according to the EIA report, but the Anadarko region is not too far behind.
According to comments on the EIA report in an article entitled, “Anadarko Shale Basin Lands Oklahoma on EIA Map”:
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“The Anadarko region accounts for approximately 450,000 barrels per day of oil production, 5.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production, 13 percent of new wells drilled, and 13 percent of drilled but uncompleted wells as of July 2017”
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“Oklahoma is home to about 4 percent of the total petroleum reserves in the country and accounts for as much as 5 percent of the total crude oil production in the United States.”
There you have it! A quick refresher on the Anadarko region…
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