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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on August 8, 2012 at 1:34

Adubu, the main variable is the time between completion of the fracture stimulation and the flowback.  There is no set time period and it could be a few days or months.

 

Assuming the lateral has 12 to 14 stages, the fracture stimulation should take ~ 4 to 7 days.  The next phase is the plug drill out with a coiled tubing unit and flowback which I believe is a 1-2 day process.  Normally wells are placed on production immediately during flowback to minimize loss.  But in some limited cases the pipeline and/or treating facilities have not yet been installed and the well would be shut-in awaiting this to occur.  

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Permalink Reply by adubu on August 8, 2012 at 15:26

les B--- thanks for reply-- so ~ 7 days to stimulate and  couple days to drill plugs with coiled tubing. I understand on the water flow back you do not get a lot  of water back on  the shale wells--why in some cases it takes months? so it could on be flowing to sells by two weeks once fac crew gets started if pipeline ready for connection  and all goes smooth. Is there any reason to fac these shale wells unless you are ready to flow to pipeline for  sell? Why fac and shut-in?

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on August 8, 2012 at 18:17

Adubu, in the early days frac crews were difficult to schedule so operator may frac a well even though he intended to wait some time before placing on production.  There could be other reasons but it was not always clear why there were such delays

 

Currently operators are generally frac'ing and placing wells on production fairly soon after drilling has been completed.

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