Formentera Partners’ second Pearsall wildcat IP’ed 1,282 bbl/d, joining its first test’s 1,499 bbl/d, according to Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) files.

The well, Darlene 1-STX #N731HP, catapulted Formentera to the No. 1 and only oil producer in South Texas’ Indio Tanks-Pearsall Field in February.

Put into sales Jan. 27, it has produced 25,177 bbl and 51 MMcf of casinghead gas through February-end, according to the RRC file.

Production in the last few days of January was 5,001 bbl after being completed Jan. 15.

February output was 20,176 bbl.

Located about 9 miles southeast of county seat Pearsall, Texas, Darlene was spud June 28 a few days after EOG Resources began making hole on its Burns Ranch #1H wildcat in Pearsall about 10 miles southwest of the Darlene pad outside Jay Kay Ranch Airport.

Darlene’s 24-hr test Feb. 7 for 1,282 bbl also came with 2.9 MMcf of casinghead gas from the 36/64-inch choke.

The 9,220-ft lateral was landed in the Lower Bexar member of the Pearsall, which underlies Eagle Ford, at about 10,400 ft. Frac fluid was 2,421 bbl/ft. Proppant was not included in the IP report.

Privately held Formentera declined to comment by press time.

The Hurrikain

The northwesterly Darlene was made from the same pad as the southeasterly Hurrikain Cat I-STX # S731H, which Formentera spud on Oct. 11.

The IP-24 test on Feb. 3 came with 1,499 bbl and 4 MMcf. It had flowed 15,130 bbl prior to the test, according to the IP report.

The well did not yet appear in RRC production records through February-end, which is the most recent month the RRC posted production data in the state.

The 7,882-ft lateral was also landed in Lower Bexar.

Frac fluid used was 2,434 bbl/ft. Proppant volume was not included in the IP report.

Meanwhile, EOG hasn’t filed an IP report yet for its Burns Ranch well southwest of Darlene and Hurrikain. It was spud June 25 and completed on July 26. A report filed in March listed it as a shut-in producer.

A 2014 test

The only other Pearsall oil producer in the county currently is the Whitley Dubose #1H that was made by Marathon Oil in 2014 and now owned by Formentera’s Pearsall wildcatting partner Britanco LLC.

The 5,736-ft lateral—parallel to the Darlene and Hurrikain laterals a few hundred yards away—was completed with 16 bbl/ft of fluid and 475 lb of proppant/ft in 20 stages, according to the RRC file said. The IP was 152 bbl and 183 Mcf on a 12/64-inch choke.

In the well’s 11 years online, it has made 97,754 bbl and 350 MMcf.

The oil volume is roughly a fifth of Indio Tanks-Pearsall Field’s total 483,000 bbl and 3.3 Bcf of gas since 1993, the earliest date the RRC has digitized production data.

Whitley Dubose made 125 bbl in January; a production report for February listed output as zero.

Marathon sold the Pearsall test well in 2016 to Earthstone Energy, which sold again in 2022 to Alvarado 2014 LLC.

Modern frac recipe

Bryan Sheffield, Formentera managing partner, told Hart Energy this past fall that the idea behind the Hurrikain and Darlene tests was to try the Pearsall with modern frac recipes, while the Whitley Dubose was made with 2014’s small frac job.

“If we go to 2,000 and 3,000 pounds per foot, you know that well is going to IP north of 400 bbl/d,” he expected from the Hurrikain.

Formentera also operates five Eagle Ford wells in Frio County, all in Briscoe Ranch and acquired from Sanchez Energy.

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