EMPIRE PETROLEUM
I
PROFILE
PREPARES to strike back
As a Tulsa-based oil and gas company, Empire Petroleum oversees more than 1,000 wells across five US states, with the overriding aim to bring unproductive assets back to life. Empire’s CEO, Tommy Pritchard, and President, Michael Morrisett, spoke to Andy Probert about the company’s ambitions to drive up production amid industry challenges.
E
mpire Petroleum Corporation is a publicly-traded oil and gas company with current producing assets in Texas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Montana and New Mexico. The management team, led by CEO Tommy Pritchard, and Company President, Michael Morrisett, is focused on targeted acquisitions of proven developed assets with synergies with its existing portfolio of wells. “We look for assets where we can deploy rigorous methods that maximize reserve recovery, with limited and highly selective drilling activity, as well as improving margins and reducing unit operating costs,” commented Mr Pritchard.
Statement of intent Tulsa-based Empire’s standout statement among its many asset acquisitions since its official launch in 2018 is the May 2021 purchase of operated New Mexico oil and gas assets from ExxonMobil. The acquired, operated assets comprise 700 gross oil, gas, and injector wells. They encompass about 40,000 net acres of Permian Basin upstream assets in the Eunice Monument Field (EMSU) in Lea County, around 15 miles southwest of Hobbs. The EMSU field, discovered in 1929, was regarded as the second largest carbonate reservoir in the Texas-New Mexico Permian area. USGS estimated that known recoverable efficiency in the Eunice Field and surrounding satellites at close to 40%, with the 50
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