The following is excerpted from several online articles about how newer frac designs are being adopted by the industry.

The early Haynesville Shale well designs had costs that were about 50% drilling and 50% completing (fracking).  As drilling has become more cost efficient and fracking has constituted a considerably greater portion of well cost, the industry has innovated to improve fracking technology and reduce the cost.  Here are the three current types of fracs.

ZIPPER FRAC – SIMUL-FRAC – TRIMUL-FRAC

Zipper fracking is a hydraulic fracturing technique used in shale development to improve production and operational efficiency in multi-well completions: 

• Process: Involves fracturing two or more parallel horizontal wells in a staggered pattern, alternating between the wells. 

Benefits: Improves operational efficiency by reducing downtime between stages, and can increase production rates and ultimate recovery rates. 

Name: Named for the zipper-like configuration of the fracture stages. 

Origin: Developed by Texas Tech University. 

Industry adoption: Has been adopted by companies in the Eagle Ford shale of south Texas. 

Zipper fracking works by:

Drilling multiple wells from a pad site 

Pumping one well while the other performs wireline operations 

Redirecting the pumps to frac the well that was just prepared with wireline 

The fractures in each cluster propagate towards each other, forcing fracture propagation in a direction perpendicular to the main fracture. 

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What is Simul-Frac and Trimul-Frac?

• Simul-frac (simultaneous fracturing) involves fracturing two wells at the same time, significantly streamlining operations compared to traditional zipper-frac methods, where wells are fractured one after the other.

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• Trimul-frac takes this efficiency a step further by fracturing three wells simultaneously, further cutting costs and speeding up well completion times.

Cost Savings and Efficiency Gains

One of the key advantages of simul-frac and trimul-frac operations is the cost savings per well: