There were a handful of very short lateral HZ wells drilled early on in the Permian, before 2011; most of those were little more than deviated wells using vertical stage frac techniques in, for instance, the upper Spraberry in the Midland Basin.

Most people then start their definition of the Permian Basin HZ tight oil play in 2010 and leave out conventional Guadalupian sandstones from their definition, like the San Andres, Grayburg, etc. and focus on unconventional shales and shaley carbonates, like the Spraberry, Wolfcamp, Bone Springs, etc. that require hydraulic frac'ing to produce.

From the beginning of 2010 thru August of 2026 there have been 61,443 HZ wells drilled in the Basin that have produced 16.76 G BO, 65 TCF of natural gas and 53 G BW.

For those of us concerned about such matters, the next 61,000 HZ wells drilled in the Basin, as some speculate is possible,…

Greenland Energy Company just committed to drilling 2 exploratory wells in Jameson Land Basin on the east side of Greenland, the side with the bad weather. There is 13 billion barrels down there, maybe. It's one of the few prospective basins that has never been drilled. To make a long story short, all of the oil majors had abandoned Greenland after a flurry of activity between 2005 and 2015. Trump made it happen.

Trump isn't acting like a president who thinks the Permian Basin will produce forever. He has grabbed 65 billion barrels in Venezuela and now, maybe, 13 billion in Greenland. Those two exploratory wells in Greenland will happen no matter what the cost. And if Alberta wants to separate, Trump is there for it. It's almost like he thinks the Permian will run out and is looking for replacement oil elsewhere.

I saw two videos today from creators who did not know much. Both claimed that America's energy problems were solved permanently. One was a new advert for Exxon's coke proppant, which increases the recoverable reserves of a well by 20%. Except it said 'up to 20%' which is not the same as averaging 20% increase. Exxon had drilled 100 wells and shown an improvement of 7-20%. The creator announced that only 10% of the OOIP is recovered, so this will recover, at best 12%. Then he said that Exxon planned on doubling its Permian output to 2.5 million b/d, which to me means they are going to drill twice as many wells before the pressure is completely depleted, but the announcer seemed to think the coke would do that all by itself. Exxon is still advertising this stuff as a miracle cure for aging wells. Are they trying to sell…

There are 45,000 HZ wells in the Delaware Basin; whether they are producing, shut in, temporarily abandoned, DUCs, wells in progress or approved permits awaiting spud, they all take up space in these eight counties defining the Delaware.

These 45,000 HZ wells have tested every unconventional shale or shaley carbonate bench in the basin, see upper right. The primary, most productive benches have been hammered, often on 330-foot spacing between wells, the remaining benches are pretty far down on the list in terms of productivity. Many of these primary benches have declined in well productivity 25% in just the past 5 years...from over-drilling, well interference and pressure depletion.

The Delaware Basin already makes 14 MM BWPD and there is NO place left to put more produced water.

It absolutely blows my mind to hear a data sell company say there are over 100,000 MORE wells that can be drilled in…