There is not reason that horiontal fracking could not be used on the Lower Wilcox in some areas. I have seen some zones that were several 100 feet thick of pay.
The Lower Wilcox has always been a tight formation and been a prime candidate for acid fracking in the past to give up it’s black gold.
The Lower Wilcox has always been a tight formation and been a prime candidate for acid fracking in the past to give up it’s black gold.
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Judging by the article the Wilcox is one of many formations in the area above and below the Eagle Ford formation. Makes sense that the drillers would go for the smaller formations from pads they’ve already set up so even though the a payout may be smaller the start up costs are less.
But there are so many formations mentioned in the article that you have to wonder if all the estimates of commercially available oil are way out of joint.
Well, I imagine that with oil prices hovering around $100@barrel — darn near every drop of oil in south texas is commercially extractable. 100@barrel oil won’t last forever however. so drillers have got to get their costs down asap.