The Week of September 12th – Recap of New Drilling Permits, Spacing, and Pooling Applications
*Be sure and read the YTD Pooling Summary Report at the bottom of this report.
Drilling Permits
29 new drilling permits were filed last week. Petroquest Energy LLC took the top spot with 7 new permits, all located in Section 5-7N-11E, Hughes County. All 7 wells are HZ Woodford tests. Citizen Energy II LLC had 2 new permits, both in Garvin County. Oklahoma Energy Acquisitions LP had 2 also, one each in Garfield and Kingfisher Counties.
New Spacing Applications
Last week we saw 18 new cause numbers created, indicating 18 new spacing applications filed with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC). These 18 new spacing applications covered lands located within 5 separate counties. The top 3 applicants were Devon Energy (6), Continental Resources (5) and Marathon Oil (3).
The 5 counties represented were some of the usual suspects of Kingfisher (7), Blaine (3), Grady (4), Canadian (2) and McClain (1).
New Pooling Applications
There were 5 new pooling applications filed last week by 5 separate applicants. Baron Exploration Company (Cleveland County), Lance Ruffel Oil & Gas (Seminole County), Marathon Oil (Kingfisher County), MidContinent II LLC-Linn (Canadian County) and Newfield Exploration (Kingfisher County)
Applicants with FINAL POOLING ORDERS Issued This Past Week
Newfield Exploration led this category 3 new Final Pooling Orders being issued, 1 in Kingfisher County and 2 orders covering a multi-section unit down in Sections 26 & 35 of 7N-4W, McClain County.
YTD POOLING SUMMARY UPDATE
This week we take a look at the YTD details of Pooling Applications and Orders to find out the most active applicants and where the activity is located.
The first question is how many applications have been filed? This summary takes into account all new pooling actions filed Jan 1 – Sept 16, of this year. There have been 510 new pooling applications filed, with 33% of those directly attributable to Continental Resources. Citizen Energy II LLC is a distant second with 7.85% of the total.
Blaine and Kingfisher Counties sit atop the YTD New Pooling Applications by county.
Orders – Who, Where, Order Type and How Many?
First, we summarize the number of actions based on order type. This total number of 1227 is greater than the “New Applications” number of 510, as most of these orders are based on New Applications filed prior to January 1, 2016.
Final Orders
This is a summary of all of the Final Pooling Orders issued between Jan 1 – Sept 16 of this year. There have been 707 Final Pooling Orders issued attributable to 121 different applicants. Here is a quick look at the applicants with 11 or more Final Orders YTD. I should make note that taking into account the Marathon acquisition of Payrock Energy would give Marathon a total of 37, which would give them 5th place. Also, Devon Energy appears near the bottom with 11, but a more accurate depiction would be to combine them with Felix Energy which had 7, thereby giving Devon a total of 18 and bringing them into the top 10.
Final Pooling Orders By County
Pooling Terms – Lease Bonus Summary
I took a quick look at the bonus amounts paid for Option 1 and Option 2 in the Final Pooling Orders. I included the following counties: Blaine, Canadian, Grady and Kingfisher and the following applicants: Newfield, Continental, Oklahoma Energy Acquisitions, Citizen Energy, Devon Energy and Felix Energy.
Based on the combination of counties and applicants noted above, I studied 366 Final Pooling Orders to determine the average bonus amounts paid for Option 1 and Option 2 in the Final Orders. I did not take into account what royalty was provided in these bonus levels.
The average bonus for Option 1 was $1901 per acre and the average bonus for Option 2 was $1665. I rounded up to the nearest dollar on both of these.
Summary:
Not surprisingly, the majority of pooling activity is concentrated geographically in the counties that make up the STACK and SCOOP with Blaine, Canadian, Grady and Kingfisher Counties coming out on top with Custer and Dewey creeping up based on new Pooling Applications.
The applicant/operator category is dominated by Newfield, Continental, Devon, Citizen, Oklahoma Energy Acquisitions, and Marathon. Look for further jockeying for position in this group as all of the operators either acquire other players and/or continue to HBP acreage in attempting to solidify their acreage positions. Cimarex is another one to watch as they have a significant position to expand on.
Data Sources
Data from Oseberg. Cutting Technology for the oil and gas industry. High-Quality Data + Powerful Software.
