While the saga of publicly held companies grappling with the oil and gas downturn is playing out in headlines, few are aware of the success that smaller, privately held companies are creating in a lower commodity price environment.

Such firms feature tightly knit staffs of technically astute employees, a conservative business approach, hedging and creative agility in a market where the options for larger companies have narrowed.

There are multiple examples of this phenomenon, with the Anadarko Basin providing a few case studies. Although the gas-rich Granite Wash has experienced severe cutbacks in activity during the downturn, the rig count has stayed constant farther east, in the greater Cana Woodford/Scoop/Stack region, the only market in the domestic landscape to escape rig erosion.

A little more off the radar screen is regional Anadarko Basin activity targeting Cleveland Tonkawa sands, where privately held operators are either consolidating positions via acquisition (usually as noncore dives­titures from larger, publicly held companies) or adapting unconventional techniques in fields that formerly featured vertical drilling. The application of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing is boosting production in liquids-rich hydrocarbons just enough to make the effort economic, despite the tough macro environment.

Le Norman Operating LLC, the operating arm of Oklahoma City-based Templar Energy LLC, holds more than 300,000 net acres in the Anadarko and has been running a five-rig program targeting Pennsylvanian-aged sands at 9,000 feet. Hedging underwrites Le Norman’s low-cost horizontal drilling effort, which will produce a steady production stream into 2016—although the company may reduce the scope of its five-rig program depending on how the economic environment plays out this year.

Cleveland Tonkawa sands are over-pressured with enough permeability to flow oil and condensate when drilled horizontally. Although considered tight sands, the play doesn’t meet the strict nanodarcy definition of an unconventional formation.

Legacy vertical development has produced at inconsistent rates, but Le Norman’s technical team is finding new life in the play by skillfully applying targeted horizontal drilling and high-density completions to coax a mix of hydrocarbons that breaks out to 50% oil and NGLs and 50% residue gas.

The company’s team specializes in geosteering its own laterals rather than contracting the program to third-party providers. Geologists and engineers work closely together to guide the horizontal wellbore within zones as narrow as 10 to 12 feet with surveys every 30 feet to keep the lateral within the best landing zone. This sampling is twice the frequency of most directional drilling. For completions, Le Norman employs slickwater with 3 million to 4 million pounds of sand along a 4,600-foot lateral, though engineers adjust pumping rates and proppant concentration depending on the unique elements along the lateral.

Embedded in these operations is a message for the industry as a whole.

“What you’ve seen in particular over the last two years has been quite remarkable across the whole space,” noted Kyle Koontz, vice president of engineering for Le Norman. “Every play, you’ve seen these dramatic efficiency gains. It’s not all service costs. It’s not all material costs. It’s not supply chain stuff. A lot of it is re-thinking. It’s better design. It’s breaking down the entire wellbore design into small increments, looking at each component and seeing how those fit back together.”

Good rock and well-engineered completions are a given. But the most important element in the company’s arsenal is its small, versatile team of individuals who possess an array of technical skills and interact frequently to apply a cross-disciplinary approach to portfolio development. Everyone knows the business plan and the organization’s goals. Add equal parts initiative and drive, subtract the multiple interlocking management levels that characterize bigger firms, and it is possible to create the organizational efficiencies that provide a competitive margin in a tough economic strip.

While good rock is crucial, so is operational efficiency. Le Norman’s development costs can be 20% lower than larger, publicly held firms competing in the same market.

The Le Norman model is applicable across legacy basins that contain bypassed oil, especially older vertical plays. Similar themes are underway in the Permian Basin’s Wolfberry, the East Texas Cotton Valley and the Powder River Basin.

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