West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico Development in 1941

ABSTRACT Development in West Texas in 1941 was greater than in any year since 1937. Two thousand three hundred twenty-five wells were drilled, including those deepened and recompleted. Of these 2,190 or 94 per cent were producers. The most active field was the Slaughter field which accounted for 678 wells or more than one-fourth of the producers drilled. One hundred thirty-five wildcat wells (wells more than one mile from production) were drilled, of which 27 were producers and 108 were dry holes. Nine of the wildcat wells established new areas of production; the remainder were produced from new levels in established areas or were considered extensions. Fifteen of the wildcats were completed from the various known Permian levels while two new levels, both in the Lower Permian, were disclosed. Permian exploration was scattered over 43 counties and was more inclusive in the number of zones tested than in previous years. Especially did pre-Permian drilling and exploration exceed that of past years. One hundred six pre-Permian wells were completed. Of this number, 21 were dry, 6 were plugged back to the Permian for producers, and one was a temporarily abandoned gas well. Thus, the dry holes amounted to 15 per cent. Twenty-five of the pre-Permian tests could be considered wildcats and of these 10 were successfully completed as producers. The center of activity was in the Abell field in north-central Pecos County. Here 56 wells were completed, including 6 wildcat producers, 1 dry hole, 6 wells which were plugged back to the newly discovered Permian zones, and a temporarily abandoned gas well. A definite trend toward deeper drilling has been accelerated by new discoveries in the Lower Permian (Leonard), Lower Pennsylvanian (“Strawn”), and Ordovician and Cambrian (Simpson and Ellenburger) groups. There was a decline of 31.5 per cent in the number of wells drilled in southeastern New Mexico in 1941. Three hundred seventy-one wells were drilled, of which 294 were oil wells, 7 gas wells, and 70 dry holes–the highest percentage of dry holes in the past several years. There were four new discoveries for the year. The most active area was the Maljamar pool, where 61 wells were completed including 3 which were dry. The producing formations of the 1941 discoveries are the Yates, Seven Rivers, and Grayburg. Geophysical activity has been conducted mainly with gravimeter and magnetometer.