Exxon Mobil filed well permits to drill the Permian’s Woodford Shale bench, joining a growing list of operators testing the basin’s deeper horizons.

Exxon’s shale unit, XTO Energy, is permitted to drill a 4-well Woodford pad in Ward County, Texas, at a total depth of 16,300 ft, according to state records. Permits targeting the Ruppel (Woodford) field were approved by the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) in early April.

The permitted locations are in the hottest emerging spot for Woodford development in the Delaware Basin, directly offsetting several wells drilled recently by Continental Resources and Marathon Oil.

Mewbourne Oil, another large, privately held operator, has also joined in the Woodford race. Mewbourne drilled its first two Woodford wells in Winkler County, Texas, in March, according to RRC records.

Bryan Bottoms, director of geology for Detring Energy Advisors, said the emerging Permian Woodford holds an immense amount of untapped resource.

“[The Woodford] is up to 700-ft thick there in southwest Winkler County,” Bottoms said May 15 at Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG 2025 Conference & Expo.

That’s about twice as thick as the Woodford bench drilled in Oklahoma, he said.

Coincidentally, Exxon, Marathon and Continental have a long history of developing the Woodford Shale in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. But as Bottoms noted, maybe that’s not a coincidence at all.

“I do think the operators that are drilling this are leveraging their technical expertise from the Woodford in Oklahoma—particularly Continental and Marathon,” Bottoms said. “They’re Woodford experts and they know what to do here.”

The Anadarko Basin represents a cornerstone of Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources' portfolio. Fittingly, company founder and Oklahoma native Harold Hamm holds a deep-rooted connection to the Midcontinent region.

Marathon Oil operated in the Anadarko Basin for decades before being acquired by ConocoPhillips last year. Now, Marathon’s legacy Oklahoma assets are being shopped for sale.

Exxon’s shale efforts have focused on the Permian Basin in recent years, especially after its acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources. But XTO has continued to drill Woodford wells in Oklahoma’s Marietta Basin with new projects as recently as 2023, state records show.

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Bosque Texas Oil

Marathon tested the Woodford in Ward and Winkler counties for several years through wholly owned subsidiary Bosque Texas Oil.

Bosque has filed completion reports for 20 Woodford horizontals since 2020, according to RRC records.

Woodford well results have varied, but certain projects demonstrated the deep bench’s strong potential.

King George #5709WH (10,515-ft lateral) in Ward County IP’d at 2,360 bbl/d of oil and condensate and nearly 10 MMcf/d of gas in June 2024.

Since coming online, the prodigious Woodford well has produced 364,266 bbl of liquids and over 2 Bcf of gas.

The next month, King George #5708WH IP’d at 1,910 bbl/d of liquids and over 7.7 MMcf/d of gas. The company’s Woodford liquids output peaked that month at 11,500 bbl/d.

Since 2020, Bosque has produced over 4.4 MMbbl of crude and nearly 2 MMbbl of condensate from the Woodford in Ward and Winkler counties, data show, with condensate making up over 31% of liquids output.

Bosque produced about 30 Bcf of Woodford gas over that span.

Bosque Woodford Wells
Bosque Texas Oil has developed the Woodford bench along the Ward-Winkler County line since 2020. (Source: Rextag)

Continental joins in

Always exploring for the next new play, Continental started developing the Woodford in late 2022. The company’s first Woodford well came online in early 2023.

Continental has submitted eight completion reports for Woodford wells to the RRC.

In its latest project in Ward County, UTL Bufflehead 2040A #01H IP’d at 876 bbl/d and 5.3 MMcf/d in October 2024.

The next month, Continental’s Woodford production peaked at 4,240 bbl/d of liquids and 56 MMcf/d of gas, state data show.

Since March 2023, Continental has produced 1.3 MMbbl of liquids from the deep Woodford bench. Of that total, 767,850 bbl (59%) was crude and 537,031 bbl (41%) was condensate.

Gas output totaled about 19 Bcf over that span.

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Mewbourne, XTO, Blackbeard

Marathon—now ConocoPhillips—and Continental aren’t alone in the Permian Woodford anymore.

Mewbourne Oil’s first two Woodford wells in Winkler County are just to the north of where Bosque and Continental have focused.

Mewbourne is more active on the New Mexico side of the Delaware Basin. The private E&P also has a large footprint in the western Anadarko Basin.

Another private operator, Blackbeard Operating, was also approved to drill a Woodford horizontal earlier in May.

Blackbeard is the leading developer on the Permian’s Central Basin Platform, where the company is applying horizontal drilling techniques to several conventional target zones.

Most of the Woodford development happening today sits up on the flanks of the Central Basin Platform.

“This play is very structurally complex,” Bottoms said. “It dips really quickly from the Central Basin Platform toward the [Delaware] Basin, but it is incredibly thick. There’s an immense amount of resource associated with the Woodford.”

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