Louisiana firm invests in Fresno County oil fields

A new Lousiana-based oil and gas company has acquired three Fresno County oilfields with a goal of increasing production of crude from their wells.

Dave Knox, the chief financial officer for White Knight Production LLC, said the company has a confidentiality agreement with the seller that prevented him from naming the oil fields or disclosing their precise location. But he added that the fields — which cover about 11,500 acres — are in what are geologically known as the Kreyenhagen and Zilch formations in western Fresno County and about 40 miles outside of Fresno.

The company says the fields were first tapped in the 1940s and have combined to produce more than 120 million barrels of crude.

“To try to say absolutely how much oil is left down there is anybody’s guess,” Knox said. “Oil and gas is a risk business. … But they’re currently producing and making money.” The company says the wells produced about 430 barrels of oil a day in the first quarter of 2015 — a relatively small production volume compared to deep-water wells in the Gulf of Mexico, some of which Knox said can produce as much as 30,000 barrels of oil a day.

Knox said the company’s plans to improve output will primarily involve upgrading to more efficient pumping units and drilling additional wells to the oil-bearing layers. The company referred to the fields as “multiple stacked reservoirs,” meaning that a single well can penetrate and draw oil from multiple layers of oil beneath the surface. He added that there are no plans for using fracking in the Fresno County fields. Fracking is a process of injecting water and chemicals into the ground to fracture subterranean layers to increase production.

White Knight Production is a partnership of Bayou City Energy LP of Texas, White Knight Resources LLC of Louisiana, and veteran White Knight investor Benton Knoblock. The Fresno County fields are the company’s first investment, but its announcement says White Knight plans to acquire and develop more already-producing properties in California, Louisiana and Texas.

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Louisiana firm invests in Fresno County oil fields."