Austin oil company Parsley Energy is about to mark 10 years of drilling the Spraberry formation of West Texas. Parsley is seeking permission from the Railroad Commission to drill nine horizontal wells targeting the Spraberry on six leases split between Upton and Martin counties.
Discovered in 1944, the Spraberry field became a popular target of drillers in the 1950s, but the tight formation proved to be challenging and frustrating. Parsley and other oil companies gave the formation another shot during the shale revolution, using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The Austin oil company has received nearly 1,200 drilling permits for wells targeting the formation since Aug. 2009. Since then, the company’s Spraberry wells have produced more than 76.9 million barrels of oil and more than 233 billion cubic feet of natural gas.