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Permalink Reply by Parkdota on May 5, 2010 at 3:40

Oh, my bad...I confused directional and horizontal as being one and the same.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on May 6, 2010 at 10:34

I'm still puzzled as to why they don't drill everything from superpads.

There's got to be some additional costs from building another pad rather than using an existing pad or even enlarging an existing pad. There have to be road costs, equipment costs, pipeline costs, etc. Plus there's an environmental and social cost of using up more land for well pads.

I don't see what the major downsides are. What I can see is that the first well is somewhat in the way of later drilling operations, but that doesn't seem like it should be a big deal.

When you look at the geometry, the length of the "vertical" shaft doesn't change that much. HA wells tend to be about 2 miles down. If the penetration point was 1 mile off to the side of the surface location of the well, the "vertical" bore is only 12% longer than than a vertical bore. The angle would be 26 degrees from vertical. You could "easily" drill 8 wells into each of 4 sections from one pad at the corner of a section.

Is there a reason they don't do this more often? Is it difficult to drill at a 26 degree angle? Is there some other technical reason?

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on May 6, 2010 at 10:42

Mac, it is still too early to understand the plans for each area since generally there has only been one well per section with a few exceptions.

Also, realize a "superpad" is not the same thing as a "Gas Factory".

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Permalink Reply by sesport on May 8, 2010 at 0:21

Les - Could you please elaborate ( in Everyday Joe terms) the difference between the two?

thanks 80)

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Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on May 8, 2010 at 4:27

Sesport,

To me a superpad simply means a large flat area that will be used as the surface location for drilling multiple wells (4 to 16 ???).

Gas Factory is a term coined by EnCana that combines the use of superpads with centralized water and condensate handling facilities. The concept is to interconnect the superpads with a central location(s) with pipelines that can be used for gathering produced water and delivering frac water. Gathering pipelines will also be used for collecting produced condensate. This would eliminate the need for trucking water and condensate from each superpad location and reduces the environmental impact and wear on some local roads. EnCana included a more detailed description of the concept in their Investor Day presentation available on their website.

I hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by James L. Williams on May 8, 2010 at 4:03

I don't know the answer to the technical questions, but you might find it interesting to look at the RRC map in Tarrant County. On the UTA campus from a pad off of Center Street just north of HW 303, Carrizo has drilled many wells to date, and claim they are going to drill at least 42. There are also several sites from which dozens of wells have been drilled under Lake Arlington and the Lake Arlington Golf Course. This is an urban environment where there are few available drill sites, which may explain why they drill so many wells from one pad, but it does show that it can be done.

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Permalink Reply by Parkdota on May 7, 2010 at 5:09

Here is a moving FFP rig that might be used in the HA for the gas factory set up, etc. Click on link then hit play.



http://www.rangeresources.com/rig%20animations/Walking_Rig.mov

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