This is the first of a series of observations from EnergyMakers’ New Mexico Deep SWD Report where we explore the practical capacity of New Mexico’s Deep SWD infrastructure and what operators and midstream players can expect going forward.
We look back to peak performance of deep SWDs (> 8,000 ft true vertical depth) at the end of 2019 – before the effects of the coronavirus and the 2020 industry downturn – probably a decent proxy for early 2021 (the beginning of the rebound).
Over 70% of deep regional injection takes place in the southern half of SE New Mexico (Eddy II and Lea IV), and this disparity is growing.
Injection rates in the southern half are almost 4 times greater than daily volumes handled by northern SWD wells, on a per-well basis.
While volumetric “runway”, or allowable volumetric growth (1 minus permitted max volume utilization) is over 65% in Northern deep SWD wells, Southern deep wells were using between 55-64% of their permitted max volumes, suggesting at most 36-45% volumetric growth according to allowable daily injection volumes (irrespective of pressure limitations.)
Actual performance of these wells remains to be seen. While over 130 deep SWDs in the area are permitted to inject at 20,000 bbl/d or higher, less than 10 deep SWDs, or around 8%, were actually injecting at 20,000 bbl/d or higher.
Stay tuned for further updates, where we explore nearer-term constraints based on allowable surface pressure utilization, along with Energy Maker’s capacity estimates based on bottomhole pressure trends.
