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Torchlight Accelerates Activity at Wolfcamp Orogrande Project

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Torchlight Energy Resources reported that it will be drilling three new wells on its Orogrande Basin Project in the coming months.

Orogrande Basin Project

The Company will drill three wells beginning in mid-October 2018 to test over fifteen additional potential pay zones encountered while developing results in the Pennsylvanian Siltstone target. The first two wells will satisfy Torchlight’s obligations under the Drilling and Development agreement with University Lands.

The next Orogrande well to be drilled will be the University Rich A11 #2. The well will be a twin to Torchlight’s Rich A11 #1 well drilled in 2015. Torchlight experienced difficulties during the drilling of the Rich A11 #1 and it was ultimately determined that the cement job on the casing had failed. As a result of data gathered from that process, we have identified five distinct Wolfcamp unconventional targets ranging in thickness from 86 feet to 160 feet.

The Company will drill, log, core, and test this geologic concept to produce evidence that these zones spread out over a significant portion of its acreage block.

Completion Design

In August, the Company announced an effort to incorporate a newly designed gas lift system to assist with the moving of fluids in the horizontal section of the wellbore.

After significant testing there was no measured increased in fluid production and the gas lift system was removed. It has been replaced by a traditional tubing and packer system in the wellbore and Torchlight has individually tested the zones down hole by systematically isolating them in front of and behind the packer.

This allowed incremental testing of each zone further out the wellbore to the toe and helped identify that results are coming from communication between all fraced zones combined. A highest hourly rate of 4.1 MMCFPD and daily of 2.2 MMCFPD has been measured with sustained production of ~1.5 MMCFPD during fluid removal at 6 barrels per hour on average. Produced oil has been encountered but further frac fluid removal is necessary to report an oil cut in measured quantities. The shut-in pressure reading was 1675 psi. Currently, the well is producing with flowing tubing pressure at 450 to 500 psi. Torchlight believes that the periodic oil shows during testing indicate significant oil in the system. The Company will continue extensive well tests including pressure transient work to achieve production and confirm the 600-foot hydrocarbon interval contains oil as well as gas. This thesis is reinforced by multiple technical factors including logs, rotary core analysis and oil recovery.