Title: WPX Aztec 1000 Tour
Course: Open PRO250 Oil & Gas Production I

Erissa Higgins

WPX Drilling Rig Tour

Aztec 1000

For this paper, I will briefly go over the basics of the Aztec 1000. This tour with WPX was very interesting. For them to take students on the location of the rig was very helpful for our studies. Even though we did not get a detailed tour of the drilling rig, I will do my best to cover what we learned in this paper.

The Aztec drilling rig is drilling the Niobrara formation that is approximately 9,600 ft. long. Once they reach total depth, they will drill a horizontal leg for about a mile. The one thing that was interesting about them drilling that far is the fact that they rent the drill bit. They do not own it, but they rent it from a company in Grand Junction. They pay (x) amount of dollars for every (x) amount of feet. They also send it to the company to refurnish the warn bit when it is needed.

As we walked around the drill rig we saw all the mud tanks, generator, water tanks, and the best part of it, the beast. The beast is also known as the B.O.P. They beast is rated for 10,000 psi, since the Niobrara is deeper than all of the other formations, it has a higher pressure. When they drill that deep, ordinary equipment will not withstand that pressure rating. Compared to the older wells they had at that location we understood why they called it the beast.

The Niobrara formation is producing a large amount of gas in the first stages. What it takes other wells from different formations decades to produce, the Niobrara does it within months. To get those types of numbers is amazing, but one also is curious on what happens next. Will the well deplete them at a faster rate, or will they continue to produce large amounts of gas for years to come? We will find out soon if this is a reliable boom.

This tour to the drilling location was an amazing experience. For us future process technicians, we will remember for the rest of our careers. Since we will be mainly on the production side of the industry we will rarely see anything like this. Although we did not have the chance to walk on the rig floor and see the various controls being next to this rig was very helpful for our studies. Also, to learn about the Niobrara formation and the amount of gas that the formation produces was informational.