Berry Corp. has lowered its drilling costs in the Uinta Basin at approximately $500,000 per well as the company expands its drilling program with three-mile laterals.
Fuel cost advantages, the use of a dual fuel fleet for D&C as well as the utilization of produced water in completions contributed to the 20% in cost savings, Berry Corp. CEO Fernando Araujo told analysts Aug. 7.
“Our current cost outlook is approximately $680 per lateral foot, which is approximately 20% lower than the average of our six non-operated horizontal wells. We began flowback on our first two wells in August, and the remaining two wells are expected to be online later this month,” Araujo said.
From the nonop laterals, Berry reported EURs averaging between 55 bbl/ft and 60 bbl/ft, “supporting further delineation of our acreage,” he said.
The Uinta in northeastern Utah has witnessed a resurgence in recent years with oil and gas producers using horizontal wells to chase some of the basin’s 1.32 Tbbl of in-place resources, as estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey. The move to horizontal development comes as the basin’s oil is no longer capped at just the roughly 100,000 bbl/d Salt Lake City refiners can take. New railway capacity to the Gulf Coast and other markets has resulted in Uinta production growing to some 200,000 bbl/d.
The renewed interest and increased activity targeting stacked pay zones are while many E&Ps look for new drilling locations outside the Permian Basin.
Berry said horizontal drilling has expanded the emerging play’s viability over the past decade with activity gradually moving south toward its 100,000-acre position. Recent horizontal activity north and east of the company’s position is led by Scout Energy Partners in the Uteland Butte Formation; FourPoint Energy in the Castle Peak, Uteland Butte and Wasatch formations; and Wasatch Energy Management in the Uteland Butte and Wasatch formations.
Momentum is also building for Berry, which Araujo said wrapped a significant portion of completion activity earlier than expected for its horizontal pad in the second quarter. It completed an average of 64 stages per well and used about 50% produced water in its stimulations.
Berry is targeting shallower intervals with average oil saturation of 70%. The company has about 1,200 existing vertical wells on its acreage that produce from multiple intervals.
“In the fourth quarter, we’ll be participating in an additional non-operated well just north of our acreage to test the Castle Peak formation,” Araujo said. “This well is expected to be on production in November and, assuming success, we see longer term potential for multi-bench cube development.”
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The Castle Peak formation is among Berry’s horizontal drilling targets. Araujo highlighted the zone’s impressive geology—a combination of limestone and sandstones, which get thicker on the southern end of Berry’s acreage.
“Industry is generally targeting where we are … what they call the ‘lower cube,’ which includes the Castle Peak and Uteland Butte, which is the main reservoir target so far for most operators, and then also the Wasatch,” Araujo said.
“Now, there have been some Castle Peak wells drilled,” he added. Among those laterals, initial EUR estimates are of 40 bbl/ft to 50 bbl/ft.
The company continues to see potential in the Uteland Butte as well—the target of its first four-well horizontal pad in the Uinta. Araujo said fields could be developed with cube drilling to simultaneously tap into multiple layers from the same pad.
There is also more opportunity to shave costs in the basin, particularly from D&C. Drilling and frac fleets operated about 50% of the time during the summer months instead of about 75%, he said.
“We can definitely improve another 5% or a little bit more as we drill in the future,” he said of overall costs, “but the more we drill, the better we’ll get, and we’re encouraged with the initial results.”
Berry’s second-quarter 2025 production in Utah was about 2.3Mbbl/d, the same as reported for the same quarter a year earlier. The company said it expects all four of its Uinta wells will be online in August.
“Our Uinta wells should help drive production growth over the second half of the year,” Araujo said.