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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 19, 2010 at 17:35

JM, I assume you may be referencing the surface location being outside the unit. If yes, I do not think you can necessarily assume any increased EUR but there may be other benefits to the operator.

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Permalink Reply by Henry on July 19, 2010 at 23:14

Les,
What might the benefits be of drilling from an adjacent unit? Petrohawk seems to drill many (most?) of its wells with the surface location in the adjacent unit. If it's not EUR, what would be the advantage?

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Permalink Reply by JM on July 20, 2010 at 0:37

Henry,
That is my question. We have have been approached about a site. We own the minerals in both units, but the requested location out of unit is in an inconvenient spot for us. Could live with it, but would rather not. I would like to know there is a monetary benefit for us. Like increase EUR, which is what we are being told.

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Permalink Reply by JM on July 20, 2010 at 1:01

They are not the operator in the other unit, so they will not be drilling into both. It is already in production. They claim they can increase the length of the lateral. Even talk about drilling at a slant back into adjacent unit before drilling the lateral to achieve the same, if they can't locate a site off unit. Trying to figure out their motivation and if it will benefit us.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on July 20, 2010 at 2:47

It may make it a little difference, but not much.

Your first perforation point has to be 330' or more from the section line. If you start from the edge of the section, it may be a little difficult to curve the pipe 90 degrees in 330 feet. Starting in the next section gives them a more gentle curve.

As for the surface location, as long as it's in the next section, it seems to me that they should have considerable latitude in where the surface location is. Since the penetration point is down 10,000' or so, moving the surface location 1000' only makes the well bore 0.5% longer.

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Permalink Reply by sesport on July 20, 2010 at 2:41

Jay - My understanding for doing this is/was the same as JM's. That drilling is done from outside the unit so that the turn can be made within the 330 ft. from section lines and allow for a longer lateral and thus more perfs.

Don't remember where I read it here or who to "credit," though.

thanks - 80)

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 20, 2010 at 3:02

JM, operators have two options for maximizing the length of the perforated horizontal lateral. 1) Drill from surface location in adjacent section as being proposed by Petrohawk. 2) Drill from surface location in the unit but curve the vertical wellbore toward (across?) the section line before turning back into the unit.

Assuming Petrohawk is not willing to do #2 they would not be able to maximize the length of perforated and frac'd horizontal lateral. This could potentially result in a lower EUR. If the maximum frac'ed interval were reduced by 100 ft this could equate to a 2% reduction in EUR.

Eventually operators would like to use "superpads" where possible and this will result in wells being drilled with surface locations in adjacent sections.

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Permalink Reply by JM on July 20, 2010 at 4:18

Thanks guys. Good information.

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Permalink Reply by sesport on July 20, 2010 at 8:51

Mac & Les - Echoing the sentiment, much appreciated. 80)

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Permalink Reply by Henry on July 20, 2010 at 12:13

Les,
So why does Petrohawk drill almost all of its wells from the adjacent section? No other operator even approaches Petrohawk for the percent of wells on which they do this.

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on July 20, 2010 at 17:59

Henry, it is the easiest way to maximize the length of the perforated and frac'ed horizontal lateral. This should result in maximizing the gas recovered (EUR) for the well.

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