The document summarizes well completion trends in 2014 for the Permian and Eagle Ford basins. It analyzes completion data for major operators such as Pioneer, EP Energy, Rosetta Resources, and Devon Energy. It finds that pad drilling increased during 2014, with over 40% of Eagle Ford completions on pads. Operators focused on efficiency and cycle time metrics to reduce costs. The outlook for 2015 includes a decline in rig counts during the first half, continued focus on core assets from independents, and an emphasis on efficiency as a driver of success.

1. T
he market is often fear
driven, reacting to news
about over supply, OPEC
price wars, and the geopolitical
factors concerning oil and
commodity prices. The year 2014
ended with West Texas Intermediate
(WTI) and Brent crude prices
dropping to 5 year lows. The
extended period of time with $90+
oil is replaced with economists,
traders and industry observers
monitoring daily oil prices and
drilling activity.
Meanwhile, oilfield service
companies and owners are
watching how E&P companies
react with reduced budgets in
2015. Several operators have
already released news of cutting
back, such as ConocoPhillips who
sliced 20 percent off their 2015
budget deferring drilling programs
in several unconventional plays.
Many E&P operators are in a
good position to weather lower oil
prices. Not all though, and we will
find out in March 2015 as banks and
investors change credit controls
and covenants due to the price
changes. The highly leveraged E&P
operators will sell assets, drill less
and focus on core fields or assets.
The High Performers Will Win
The efficiencies of drilling crews
continue to improve. Drilling
contractors win business by
demonstrating results with better
efficiency metrics, days to depth
improvement, and fewer safety
incidents than their competition.
Days to total depth (TD) for
Permian on average is 29 days with
vertical wells taking an average of
only 21 days. Eagle Ford averages
33 days to get to TD.
Stimulation crews do not have
the same emphasis due to the
changing completion designs and
understanding of what works in
a specific formation. There is
evidence in the data that suggests
that pad drilling is maturing and E&P
companies are more performance
driven than ever before. E&P
operators decreased well costs in
2014 with more emphasis on days to
put on production and other cycle
time metrics for completing a well.
Of the completions during 2014
in Eagle Ford, 40 percent were on a
pad with sophisticated walking or
flex rigs, compared to 35 percent
during the same months in 2013.
Figure 1 represents the number of
wells per pad during 2014 compared
to 2013 for the upper Eagle Ford.
Looking Back at 2014 Well
Completion Trends
We took a look at 2014 well
completions from January 1 to
August 31, 2014 to get a better
picture of the well completion
activity in the Permian and Eagle
Ford. Seventy-three percent of the
Texas well completions were in the
Permian and Eagle Ford.
In the Permian, Pioneer completed
311 wells with 45 percent of those
horizontal completions. Figure 2
shows the Permian top operators.
Figure 3 shows the top operators
for Eagle Ford. EOG, Chesapeake
and Anadarko lead the pack with
the most well completions in the
Eagle Ford.
2014 & 2015 Operator Highlights
Pioneer—Strong activity to
continue in 2015; most horizontals
in Permian.
Pioneer Natural Resources is the
second most active driller in Texas,
behind EOG Resources. Pioneer
averages 42 drilling days across
the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin.
Pioneer focuses on Spraberry/
Wolfcamp where the company has
30 rigs running and several frac
fleets in operation.
Pioneer’s vertical integration
includes 8 frac fleets, 6 coiled
tubing units, the Brady sand mine,
By TODD BUSH
Energent Group_______________________
108 Well Servicing January/February 2015
WellPerformance,NotPrice
Will Drive Industry Forward in 2015
Figure 1 represents the number of wells per pad during 2014
compared to 2013 for the upper Eagle Ford.
Figure 1

2. Well Servicing January/February 2015 109
and water distribution network for
the Wolfcamp well demands. The
company completed over 100 wells
in Martin, Midland and Glasscock
counties. Efficiency across the value
chain allows the company to front-
end load infrastructure costs and
spread the costs over the life of
the asset.
EP Energy: All Horizontal in
Permian & Eagle Ford.
EP Energy’s well completion
activity is 100 percent horizontal
this year with 88 percent in La Salle
(Eagle Ford) and Crockett targeting
the Wolfcamp. EP Energy’s days
to total depth averages 19 and
the company waits approximately
61 days to complete a well in the
Eagle Ford.
The average lateral length for
new well starts in Eagle Ford is
6,556 feet with an average oil initial
production of over 1,200 barrels.
The completion optimization
program is implemented in the
Eagle Ford with increased stages
and proppant amounts. Expect EP
Energy to continue to focus in La
Salle and Dimmit areas.
EP primarily uses FTSI and
Weatherford to execute well
stimulations of 30 stages with over 9
million pounds of proppant per frac
job. Figure 4 shows EP Energy’s
well completions near Cotulla in
La Salle County.
The Wolfcamp program for EP
Energy requires an equivalent of
$60 per barrel to break-even. At the
closing bell on December 12, 2014
the WTI was at $57 per barrel.
The company is prime to continue
their 5 rig program in Eagle Ford
and 4 rig program for Wolfcamp
through 2015.
Rosetta Resources: $950 million
budget +20 percent production growth
expected in 2015.
Rosetta Resources is a pure play
Permian and Eagle Ford operator.
The company is focusing on a new
completion design that increases
the proppant amount by 44 percent.
This increase means the completion
technique will utilize almost 6
million pounds of frac sand in 19
frac stages.
In Reeves County, we see evidence
of the new completion design with
Weatherford, Halliburton and BHI
executing the work with frac sand
provided by Carbo and Santrol. The
Wolfcamp horizontal completions
use between 1,000-1,200 pounds of
sand per lateral foot. The company
is running four rigs in the Permian.
The company cut 2015 budget
expectations, yet the firm will spend
$522 million in Eagle Ford and
$428 million in Wolfcamp. This
may reduce the rigs slightly for
2015 but expect the firm to get
more favorable contracts in the
coming year.
Devon Energy: Second most
Permian horizontals.
Devon’s Permian focus in
Wolfberry, Wolfcamp and Bone
Spring ranks the operator second
behind Pioneer with 104 horizontal
well completions.
In the Bone Spring play, Devon is
testing 1,500 to 2,500 pounds per
lateral foot. This is 150 percent to 317
percent to the previous completion
design. Preliminary results from
these larger completions indicate
significantly improved initial
production rates, higher EURs and
enhanced rates of return compared
to the previous completion design.
There is evidence of these new
completion designs with Baker
Hughes and Trican executing the
well completions.
The company has over 5,000+
drilling locations in the Permian
and expects to deliver similar
production results in 2015. Based
on the sample completions,
Devon waits 43 days on average
to complete a well.
Devon’s recent spuds and well
starts in the Eagle Ford are shown
in Figure 5.
Devon also has a strong asset
base in the Eagle Ford due to the
acquisition of GeoSouthern Energy.
Figure 2 – Permian Top Operators Figure 3 – Eagle Ford Top Operators

3. CrownQuest Operating: Most active
conventional private company.
Eighty-four percent of their
activity is in Glasscock, Howard
and Martin counties in Texas and
100 percent of the well completions
are vertical wells.
CrownQuest is an efficient driller
and operator. Their time to total
depth averages 15 days and the
company waits an average of 42
days to complete a well.
The amount of oil for CrownQuest
is not as prolific as some of the
neighboring horizontal wells;
however, the cost to drill a
vertical well in Howard, Martin
and Glasscock is significantly less
compared to the $6.5 to $8 million
for horizontal
wells in the area.
With a lower lease
operating expense
and ef ficient
operations expect
this conventional
private company to
continue to attract
private investors in
2015.
Parsley Energy:
Drops vertical rigs to
focus on horizontal
results in 2015.
Parsley Energy
had completed 88
wells near the end
of 2014 with only
5 horizontal wells.
The firm’s vertical
wells averaged 11,605
feet and days to total
depth averaged 18.
Parsley Energy
has 2,700+ drilling
locations in the
Spraberry, Wolfcamp,
Cline and Atoka. In
mid-December 2014,
the company had
reported 5 horizontal
completions with
lateral lengths
ranging from 5,200
feet to 9,695 feet.
Santrol provided
sand for several
of these frac jobs
ranging from 9
million to almost 12
million pounds.
The company’s
break-even price is
$43 for their horizontal wells. Due to
the changes in prices, the company
cut 4 vertical rigs from the 2015
plan to focus on horizontal returns.
Trends for 2015
Unfortunately, we do not hold the
crystal ball to outline what is going
to happen in 2015. Here are the 5
items we are watching:
1. Rig count declines faster in first
half of 2015
2. Independent E&Ps invest in
core assets
3. Efficiency drives success with
supplier metrics becoming more
important
4. Pad drilling matures
5. Sourcing strategies for sand
and water gain attention due to
cost pressures
For the first half of 2015, plan
for rig count decline. We expect
the rig count to move toward 2013
numbers across each basin. That
means by mid-2015 total U.S. rig
count will drop near 1,550-1,600
due to the uncertainty in oil prices,
OPEC, global economic factors and
budget cuts.
The independent E&P companies
will continue to invest in core assets
across the unconventionals. The
focus will enable the companies
to meet production numbers since
many of the operators are hedged
in 2015 through 2016.
Efficiency will drive success for
operators and service companies.
Key metrics for drilling are known
but stimulation crew capability will
gain more attention. Watch for days
in completion inventory (drilled
not completed), to complete a
well, and days to put on production
become more important in supplier
discussions.
Pad drilling matures in 2015
with the percent of pad drilling
increasing to over 60 percent for
Eagle Ford and up to 25 percent in
Permian. Operators will continue to
optimize completions and reduce
their surface footprint. This move
allows each company to focus on
critical materials throughout the
entire well lifecycle.
New sourcing strategies will yield
results, especially for water and
frac sand. As operators continue
to increase the amount of frac
sand per lateral foot, expect water
and sand demand to remain high.
Operators are executing longer
laterals in the Eagle Ford and
Permian. Twelve to 15 million
pound frac sand jobs will be more
frequent increasing the logistics
challenges in certain areas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Todd Bush
is a Principal at Energent Group in
Houston, Texas. Energent Group focuses
on upstream market intelligence through
data-driven research and services. The
company provides drilling, completion,
and frac data for oilfield service
companies to scout operators, monitor
unconventional activity, and benchmark
competitor performance. Our research
services allow corporate and business
development groups to understand the
market trends, plan sales activity, and
close new business.
110 Well Servicing January/February 2015
Cotulla in La Salle County.
in the Eagle Ford.