Abstract

The Venteam Ellenburger Field was discovered in December 2004 with drilling and completion of the Enron Oil & Gas #1201 Holt well. The Field is located in north central Ector Co. TX., near the Andrews Co. line. This Field has produced 3.5 MMBO to date from the Ellenburger and should ultimately recover over 5 MMBO from 7 wells. It was a struggle to get the initial well tested in the Ellenburger after drilling and further development was like pulling teeth due to seismic, however an intimate knowledge of the reservoirs stratigraphy, diagenesis, production characteristics and regional geologic framework proved successful in discovering one of the last multi-million barrel structural Ellenburger fields in the basin.

The discovery well was drilled from a subsurface prospect that was confirmed with 3-D seismic shot by Texaco. The initial structure defined by seismic was a significantly smaller fault bounded structural closure than what the field ended up being. The initial well was drilled after Texaco farmout to Enron. Several problems occurred while drilling; casing was run to openhole drill the Ellenburger. Drilling techniques masked shows and indications of productivity, the well was to be plugged back to test minor shows in the Devonian. Pressure was applied to at least run a simple Gamma Ray- Neutron to evaluate the Ellenburger section to see if a shallow Karst fill section was drilled. WALA! The “Magic Log”, porosity was indicated and a completion attempt was made.

The Holt 1201 well was completed pumping after an acid job but after 2 months the well had declined significantly (but no water) suggesting a smaller structure to management. A large acid was proposed and brought the production up. A long step out development well was proposed after new seismic maps were generated from knowledge of regional stratigraphy to account for seismic velocity sag that existed across the crestal portion and whole east half of the structure. This well, the Holt 1202 was completed flowing 500 BOPD after several acid jobs to connect to the permeability network of the Ellenburger. The Holt 1203 was then drilled and encountered small bit drops in the Ellenburger and flowed naturally over 500 BOPD, this well has produced an estimated 1221 MBO +856 MMCFG, and is still producing 155 BOPD on high volume lift.

The Venteam Field (New Ventures Team) was discovered and developed through diligence and confidence in knowledge of a Formation’s properties of the multidisciplinary team that stuck their necks out to get it done. The field is also productive from Fusselman, Pennsylvanian and Wolfcamp Reservoirs. Initial production considered the discovery a true “Sows Ear”, but the end result over 4081 MBO +3 BCFG produced from all zones to date, truly a “SILK PURSE”!