In July 2021, Hunt officially kicked off a round of drilling in North Dakota with the spud of the Blue Ridge 159-100-6-7H-4 well. This is the first of four wells to be drilled over the next two months in the Cowboy field area. The Blue Ridge 159-100-6-7H-4 well will land in the Three Forks formation approximately 9,200 feet below surface. Hunt currently owns approximately 95,000 net operated acres across the Williston Basin.

Over the next 12 months, Hunt will drill and complete 14 new wells and re-frac four legacy wells in its broader portfolio of assets as part of this continued development program.  

Hunt Oil has had a continual presence in West Texas since 1948, when H.L. Hunt signed the Robert P. Amacker Lease. Hunt has produced over 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE) from lands covered by the Amacker Tippett Lease, and approximately 50 MMBOE of black oil. In 2013, Hunt made an acquisition from Merit Energy and various other acquisitions to follow. Since that time, Hunt has produced over 74 MMBOE gross. 

A large portion of the asset was developed through a partnership with global investment firm, Sixth Street. The partnership ultimately peaked at six-rigs and drilled over 200 wells. Upon completion, it was regarded as one of the largest successful partnerships of its kind.  

Along with the initial Merit acquisition, the team improved Hunt’s position in West Texas through subsequent acquisitions including Hanley and Elk River (roughly 3,850 net acres combined), as well as land trade activity that increased net drillable acres by over 10,500.   

Most importantly, because of Hunt’s robust safety culture, Hunt has not had a single Hunt employee suffer a lost time or recordable incident in West Texas since 2017.  In addition, spill prevention and proactive monitoring has reduced both the number and volume of environmental releases by 89% since 2013.   

On June 30, 2021, Hunt Oil Company sold its West Texas Assets to Vencer Energy.

Today, we are actively pursuing opportunities to re-enter West Texas.

In 1992, Hunt Oil Company acquired a lease and certain mineral interests in southeast King County, Texas on the Eastern Shelf of the Permian Basin (Figure 1). Hunt operated the asset, formally known as Burnett Ranch, for the next 28 years. The area included 13 oil bearing zones over 50 different fields and totals 38,000 acres, including 35,000 acres of gross minerals. The reservoirs across the Burnett Ranch exhibited high primary and secondary recoveries with over 110 MMBOE (~98% oil) produced, or approximately 45% of original-oil-in-place (OOIP). 

Ultimately, CO₂ injection began in March 2014 with the first tertiary oil response approximately 6 months later (Figure 2). PA1 covered approximately 10,750 acres of the Burnett Ranch lease hold, and the incremental recovery target for PA1 was 19.5 MMBO (gross) with approximately 4.0 MMBO produced through June 2019. PA1 produced approximately 2,800 BOPD (gross), which was roughly 85% of the daily oil production from Burnett Ranch at the time the asset was sold.