Huge new Oil find in West Texas

Major Oil Field Found in Texas — Energy Journal

​More below.

"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, Bradley Olson and Erin Ailworth report.

The discovery, which Apache is calling “Alpine High,” is in an area near the Davis Mountains that had been overlooked by geologists and engineers, who believed it would be a poor fit for hydraulic fracturing. It could be worth $8 billion by conservative estimates, or even 10 times more, according to the company.

The discovery is likely to transform Apache, currently the U.S.’s sixth-largest independent energy company with a market capitalization of $20.1 billion. Alpine High may now be the biggest asset for Apache, known in the industry for its frugality and record of buying assets from other companies rather than finding its own.

Shares rose by as much as 13% after U.S. markets opened Wednesday.

The discovery of Alpine High in a previously sleepy corner of the Permian Basin comes as the industry has struggled globally to find new resources, particularly oil. Other major discoveries in the past decade include Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Liza field in Guyana, which could hold as much as 1.4 billion barrels."

There is much talk of supply/demand rebalancing, but little evidence of it. Expect that the price of oil will continue to be battered, by the fact that supply will continue to outstrip demand, and expect world demand to remain low, and likely head lower as the world economy continues to weaken, and approach full on recession.