Interest in the San Andres of New Mexico currently is running at a high level with an average of 8 wildcats and 30 field wells active within the 44 townships of the play. The play centers on the common corner of Chaves, Roosevelt, and Lea Counties. In this general area on the north flank of the Tatum basin and the south flank of the Matador uplift, oil and gas is being found in the San Andres under hydrodynamic conditions where permeability pinchouts cross anticlinal noses. Most of the medium-gravity oil has been found between 3,000 and 5,000 feet in fractured dolomite of the Slaughter zone of the San Andres. Almost all of the 10 commercial San Andres fields in the report area have been found within the last 8 years. During this period the petroleum industry drilled about 150 exploratory wells and more than 550 San Andres field wells. The 10 fields ultimately should yield at least 100 million dollars gross revenues from the sale of oil and gas.

On the average this is 10 million dollars per field, which is the approximate equivalent of 4 million barrels of oil. An average productive well will generate approximately $200,000 gross revenues during the life of the property. This compares with an average dry-hole cost of $30,000 and $55,000 for the average producer.

Because of the very low porosity of the Slaughter reservoir zones, drill-stem tests and conventional logging procedures generally are inadequate to evaluate the San Andres properly. This paper reviews several of the guide lines or rules which should assist in finding and evaluating San Andres traps.

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