Permian players both large and small have stepped up their explor­ation of the Spraberry in the past year and early results have some operators re-thinking their drilling plans.

“The horizontal Spraberry continues to gain steam as operators delineate acreage across the northern Midland basin with a larger pool of well results pointing toward estimated ultimate recoveries that may rival the Wolfcamp B in some areas (about 650,000 to more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent),” analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt said.

Collectively,