U.S. Central

Overview

Apache’s Central Region spans the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, the Anadarko Basin in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, and East Texas. We are the fourth-largest producer in both the Anadarko and Permian basins. Over the past decade, the region has grown from approximately 3,000 wells to over 10,000 and now represents 27 percent of Apache’s proved reserves, the largest concentration in the company. The Central region provides steady, predictable results, enhanced by assets across a large acreage base.
During 2009, Apache operated or participated in drilling 135 wells; 99 percent were completed as producers. The region also performed 810 workovers and recompletions.

Anadarko basin

We drilled our first operated horizontal well in the Granite Wash play in Washita County, Okla. The Hostetter #1-23H commenced production in September 2009 at 17 million cubic feet per day (MMcfd) and 800 barrels per day (Bpd) and is currently producing 9.5 MMcfd and 600 Bpd. Apache owns a 72-percent working interest in the well. The Granite Wash has long been a core-stacked pay target for this region, where we have drilled many vertical wells over the past decade. As a result, Apache has nearly 200,000 gross acres in the play, mostly held-by-production. The Granite Wash is re-emerging as a horizontal play that is capitalizing on high oil prices given the rich liquids yield of the wells. Hundreds of additional horizontal well locations have been identified across our acreage, extending opportunities for many years. In early 2010, we had three rigs in operation with plans to increase to five as we target drilling a minimum of 29 horizontal wells in the play during the year.

Permian basin

Apache is one of the largest producers in the Permian Basin, which as been a part of the Central region for the last several years.  Due to the continued growth in this area, Apache created a new Permian basin region based in Midland, Texas, effective in the first quarter of 2010.