Beyond the Horizon: Exploring the Permian’s Longest Laterals

Maximizing hydrocarbon recovery is the constant goal of the oil and gas industry, and developing new technologies is the means to that end. Horizontal drilling is a case in point. After years of drilling vertically to reach reservoirs, innovative thinkers came up with a new strategy to get as much oil out of a field as possible—horizontal drilling. And when new challenges arose, creative engineers figured out how to extend lateral wells to access more of the reservoir for improved recovery and operational efficiency. 

A look at the companies that are pushing the limits of horizontal drilling shows just how far the industry has come in developing technologies to extend well length and increase production.

Exxon Mobil

In the Permian Basin alone, supermajor Exxon Mobil is responsible for five of the region’s longest lateral wells, three of which are in Poker Lake, New Mexico.

At a length of 22,211 ft, Poker Lake Unit 21 DTD 176H is the longest well in the Permian,  with wells 177H and 175H, the second and third longest wells, coming in at 22,138 ft and 22,136 ft respectively. Wells 175H and 176H were spudded in the first quarter of 2023, and 177H was spudded the following quarter. All three wells were drilled by the Nabors X12 rig.

Exxon’s Big Eddy Unit 5E Han Solo 100H well, spudded in May 2020 in Eddy County, New Mexico, is the ninth longest lateral well at 19,288 ft. . The company’s John Braun A Unit 4 2527 SH well in Midland County, Texas, is the tenth longest well in the Permian. It was completed in April 2023 at 18,951 ft.

GBK Corp.

Spudded in July 2020 by Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. subsidiary GBK Corp., the Red Hills 504H well is the fourth longest lateral well in the Permian, measuring 21,156 ft. The well, located in Lea County, New Mexico, began producing in 2021.

SM Energy

In the same year that the Red Hills 504H well came onstream, SM Energy held the record for the longest lateral well in the Permian, with Clarice Starling Sundown D 4542 WA in Howard County, Texas. The still-producing well, which took crews about 20 days to drill, is now the fifth longest lateral in the basin at 20,873 ft.

Franklin Mountain Energy

Denver-based Franklin Mountain Energy has the sixth longest lateral well in the Permian. Located in Lea County, the company’s Green Light 801H well, which is 20,765 ft long, began producing in August 2023. 

Permian Resources

The eponymously named Permian Resources operates the seventh longest lateral well in the Permian Basin. Located in Eddy County, the 20,503 ft-long Ovation 1318 241H well began production in September 2022.

Pioneer Natural Resources

Pioneer Natural Resources (in the process of being acquired by Exxon Mobil) has the eighth longest lateral well in the Permian Basin. The 19,301 ft-long Frank-Sally 11K 111H well, was drilled in Midland County, by H&P’s rig 641.