Delaware Mountain Group, west Texas, a case of refound opportunity: Part 2- Cherry Canyon formation

Recent drilling activity in the War-Wink area of west Texas has established a new play in submarine channel and levee/overbank sandstones of the middl e and fewer Cherry Canyon Formation, Delaware Mountain Group (Guadalupian). Previous exploration and development, spanning the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, had focused on the upper part of the formation. The new play, locat ed a few miles west of the Central Basin platform, suggests the existence o f multiple channel trends not yet explored in the Delaware basin. Entrapmen t in the War-Wink area is related to both structural and stratigraphic fact ors. Lower Cherry Canyon reservoirs have porosities ranging from 18 to 24% and permeabilities ranging from 10 to 60 md and thus are higher in quality than reservoirs of the underlying Brushy Canyon Formation. Core data indica te that permeabilities increase rapidly above a threshold porosity value of about 18%. Lower Cherry Canyon wells are completed by fracture stimulation in one or two main reservoir zones, with several secondary zones commonly behind pipe. Wells usually flow at rates of 100-200 bbl oil per day for up to I yr before being put on pump Main producing zones are capable of recove ries ranging from 50,000 to 120,000 bbl. Attempts at using horizontal drill ing in place of fracture stimulation have proved highly successful in certa in cases. Use of this approach for Cherry Canyon development, guided by goo d geologic control, may provide an excellent technique applicable to many p ortions of the Delaware basin.