Posted on 02/04/2019 11:46:05 AM PST by EyesOfTX
The Alpine High has always been there — well, it’s been there for several hundred million years, anyway — just waiting for the right team of scientists to come along and find it. As things turned out, it took a team staffed by people with little or no prior experience in the Permian/Delaware Basin to make the discovery.
I first interviewed Keenan in August, 2016, shortly after Apache had made the initial announcement of the major new discovery, for a piece published on Forbes.com. During that interview, Keenan pointed to his team’s lack of previous experience in the region as a major factor in Apache’s ability to discover the Alpine High, meanwhile many companies that had come before had passed it by. As Keenan put it, his team’s lack of preconceived notions about the nature of the rock beneath the ground allowed it to “contravene the pre-existing dogma” about the play, and evaluate it through non-biased eyes.
Companies have explored for oil and gas in the general area for decades. Most previous exploration took place on the Northern and Eastern flanks of Apache’s current acreage position, although some early wells were drilled within it in the early 2000’s. At that time, companies were testing the Barnett/Woodford extension to see if it might be as productive as the Northeastern extent of the formation in the Dallas/Fort Worth area had been. Those efforts turned out to be only modestly successful, and preconceived notions about the reservoir quality and structural history of the area that now constitute the core of Apache’s acreage precluded any further serious testing in that portion of the play from taking place.
(Excerpt) Read more at shalemag.com ...
So you’ve started excerpting your material again.
I guess you know what comes of that.
And you had been doing so well, too.
Make your time.
Hold off HumGun. Dave didn’t post this...
I wonder how much a subscription to Shale Magazine would be?
They probably have a foldout of The Rock of the Month.
I remember “Rocky Mountain High”..................
“Well, Jim, guess what I found under your son’s bed?
I’ll tell you what I found!
Several copies of Shale Magazine!
What are you going to do about that?”
“I’m damn sure not going to let you see my Quartz Magazine If you’re getting this mad.”
It’s full of schist.....................
DB has a new or secondary FR handle? I’m used to seeing another? Sneaky.
Meh.
That’s taken for granite.
So is my cousin Mike, but what has that........
Oohhhhhh.....
I see........
Some kind of rock wordplay.
I tip my hard hat to you.
Thanks, but don’t gravel....................
It comes from a sedimentary lifestyle...............
Ah!
Another one!
Maybe I can come up with one.
OK!
Let’s have some rocks for lunch!
I think I like yours better.
Gneiss meeting you!.......................
Fine!
What’s Gnu with you?
Damnit!
Rocks....not animals......
Good pun, o’pal; that’s giving it with both beryls.
You could be between a rock and a hard place!.............
Thanks, but I need to be boulder!.......................
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