“We usually find oil in a new place with old ideas. Sometimes, we find oil in an old place with a new idea, but we seldom find much oil in an old place with an old idea.”
“Several times in the past we have thought that we were running out of oil, when actually we were running out of ideas.” - University of Tulsa Petroleum Geology Professor Parke A. Dickey, September 1958
Nearly 50 years later, Professor Dickey's statement still seems timeless. Devon's projects are not defined by old ideas and many of our exploration endeavors attempt to unlock the resources others may have left behind. We have developed world-class natural gas fields in places long overlooked as unproductive and uneconomical.
The coal beds of northwest New Mexico's San Juan Basin and the Barnett Shale of north Texas were ignored for decades by oilmen drilling for less complicated sandstone targets above and below. As production continues to decline from conventional sandstone reservoirs, output from coal and shale is growing. Today, coal and shale represent the future of the North American natural gas industry. Unconventional natural gas fields are among the most prolific in North America and Devon is leading the way in developing them.
In 1989, Devon became one of the first companies to produce economically viable quantities of natural gas from coal beds. Drilling into northwest New Mexico's Fruitland coal formations, the company's innovation and persistence helped unlock the secrets to producing coalbed natural gas, which has become a major energy resource in North America. Devon's coalbed operations in the San Juan Basin are expected to ultimately produce more than 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Successes in the San Juan Basin have led to other coalbed reservoirs in Wyoming and to exploration projects in Montana, Oklahoma and western Canada.
The company asserted its pioneering spirit again in developing the huge Barnett Shale natural gas field in 2002 when it acquired Mitchell Energy. After charting new ground in New Mexico and Wyoming, technical challenges the Barnett offered in North Texas were a natural fit for Devon. Devon continued its path of innovation by improving fracturing techniques, using horizontal drilling as well as advanced seismic imaging technology and enhanced recovery methods. Since 2002, the company's production has doubled to more than 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day, more than any other company operating in what has become the largest gas field in Texas.
Through its determination in the Barnett Shale, Devon has emerged as the largest gas producer in the state of Texas and the third largest gas producer in the nation. The Barnett Shale has become such a successful gas resource that producers have begun exploration and development operations in other shale formations across North America.
The Fruitland Coal Beds and the Barnett Shale were not new places when Devon targeted them for development. They had been passed over and drilled through many times. But, as professor Dickey said in 1958, sometimes, all it takes to reinvigorate an old place is a new idea.