Update -- Alpine High -- December 22, 2017

This was the original post, a little over a year ago:

Link here.

Apache Corp.  said it has discovered the equivalent of at least two billion barrels of oil in a new west Texas field that has the promise to become one of the biggest energy finds of the past decade.

So, what's new in Alpine High?

National Gas Intel, October 10, 2017:

Apache Corp. has mapped out thousands more Alpine High drilling locations in West Texas since unveiling the Permian Basin play a year ago, and while wet gas remains the No. 1 target, dry natural gas and oil targets continue to emerge.

The play appears to be better than even Apache first expected with three distinct hydrocarbon pay zones -- wet gas, dry gas and oil. The dry gas economics now appear to favorably compete with the Marcellus Shale, while the wet gas economics size up to Oklahoma’s best stacked reservoirs. And the oil prospects? Those are just beginning to be understood. 

Today Alpine High’s net production from 34 wells is 101 MMcf/d of gas, 1,425 b/d of oil and 2,025 b/d of natural gas liquids (NGL). By year’s end, net volumes from 42 producing wells are expected to grow to 125 MMcf/d of gas, 1,900 b/d of oil and 3,000 b/d of NGLs.

HarteEnergy, October 12, 2017:

“The Alpine High is truly unique. It contains an unprecedented vertical hydrocarbon column of 4,000 to 5,000-plus feet with five discrete hydrocarbon-bearing formations—the Woodford, Barnett, Penn, Wolfcamp and Bone Springs—each with multiple target zones,” Apache CEO John Christmann said in the presentation.

The Houston-based company revealed the Delaware Basin discovery, which is the same geologic age as the Arkoma Woodford and Scoop/Stack, in September 2016. Since then, Apache’s 307,000 net-acre Alpine High position has grown to 366,000. 

Reuters, December 15, 2017: Apache's latest expansion plan shows US shale far from peaking.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration this week lifted its projection for total 2018 U.S. crude production to 10.02 million barrels per day. That would be up sharply from projected 2017 production of 9.2 million bpd. Higher-than-expected production from the United States and elsewhere has prompted OPEC and other producing countries to extend output cuts in an attempt to reduce a global glut.

Unlike other parts of the Permian, which contains rocks rich in crude oil, some of Alpine High’s geology predominantly contains types of natural gas. But as Apache drills more wells, it will collect more data that it can use to update its reserve estimates for Alpine High.

Apache’s initial tests last year showed Alpine High contained at least 75 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 3 billion barrels of oil - enough to satisfy U.S. oil demand for almost half a year - in a western part of the Permian in the far west of Texas.

Now this from the Reuters' article. Put this in context: Oasis paid $50,000/acre in the same basin.

Apache bought the land on the cheap during the oil price downturn of 2015 and 2016, paying an average of $1,300 an acre at a time when some parcels elsewhere in the Permian sold for more than $30,000 an acre.