ExxonMobil (XOM) Announces World Record Drill; Will Produce Additional 5.8M BOE. Six mile horizontal extended reach.

ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) has completed the world’s longest extended-reach well drilled from an existing offshore fixed platform drilling rig, increasing the company’s ability to produce more domestic oil supplies from existing facilities at the Santa Ynez unit, offshore southern California. The well drilled from the Heritage platform using ExxonMobil’s Fast Drill technology extends more than six miles horizontally and more than 7,000 feet below sea level.

Through the use of this extended reach drill technology, the well will be able to produce an additional 5.8 million barrels of oil equivalent, an amount equal to the annual energy consumption of over 144,000 Californians.

“ExxonMobil is applying its advanced drilling technologies to produce more domestic supplies of oil to meet America's growing energy needs,” said Kok-Yew See, ExxonMobil’s U.S. production manager. “These new tools and lessons learned from our recent work off Russia's Sakhalin Island have been key in helping us reach these resources safely and efficiently.”

The Santa Ynez Unit, located in federal waters, is comprised of the Hondo, Harmony and Heritage platforms. They produce oil and gas from the Hondo, Pescado and Sacate fields. Since 1981, the Santa Ynez Unit has produced more than 450 million barrels of oil. During that time, the Santa Ynez Unit has earned 12 Safety Awards for Excellence from the Pacific Region of the U.S. Department of Interior Minerals Management Service (MMS) for outstanding safety and environmental performance on the Outer Continental Shelf.

In 2007, ExxonMobil advanced the science of extended reach drilling, which allowed oil production in the western Sacate field from the existing offshore Heritage platform. Geologists and engineers have employed this technology on the newest well to access previously unreachable resources without installing an additional structure.

ExxonMobil is also applying its leading-edge Fast Drill technology to achieve improvements in drilling rates by up to 80 percent. The technology is resulting in new production being brought on quickly, safely and at lower cost.


http://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/ExxonMobil+(XOM)+Announces+World+Record+Drill%3B+Will+Produce+Additional+5.8M+BOE/5536142.html

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Permalink Reply by Aubrey C. Sanders, Jr. on April 17, 2010 at 5:41
Perhaps we should propose Haynesville Shale units encompass a Township rather than a Section. Think about that!

This is very exciting technologial advance. What is next?
Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on April 17, 2010 at 6:39
This was drilled off of an existing platform, not with a high tech, ultra-modern drill ship.

It would be interesting to know what new technology was used and if it were applicable to a land drilling rig. If it would work in the Haynesville Shale, it could get more sections drilled and into production quicker, with one central gas collection point (eliminating then need for many different gathering pipelines). To say nothing about not tearing up the land and interfering with surface rights.

We may be comparing oranges to apples when you factor in the need for releasing the gas with ftacking, and if the recovered oil is coming out of sand formations.
Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on April 18, 2010 at 6:06
Pipeliner, the additional cost, excessive drilling rig size and other challenges would not justify the limited benefits.
Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on April 18, 2010 at 6:21
Les B,

I agree.
Permalink Reply by Jack B2 on April 17, 2010 at 16:11
Aubrey, isn't that what what we have in the cotton valley unit established in the early 60's, 14,000 plus acres that Exxon now has through XTO?
Permalink Reply by red rider on April 17, 2010 at 18:03
how many fracs did they use? is there a formula?
Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on April 18, 2010 at 5:22
Permalink Reply by Pipeliner on April 18, 2010 at 6:02
A previous drilled ExxonMobil well (Sa-2) in the Sacate field had no horizontal section but dropped angle from the top of the reservoir. Evidentlly the pay zone there is large, unlike the Haynesville Shale's pay zone.
It is unknown if the latest record well has a horizontal section, or if it is the "dropped angle' type well.

Here is some information on the formations in the Sacate field:

(1) Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Received: 25 December 2006 Published online: 28 March 2008

Abstract The Californian borderland is the largest oil and gas region of the Pacific coast of the United States. Here, a series of large and minor sedimentary basins with established or inferred oil and gas bearing properties are recognized. The Californian borderland is located on a Nevadan-type active continental margin. The bodies of such margins are composed of giant accretion formations and occupy not only their underwater parts but also vast land areas. The accretion formations are dominated by rocks of a deep-water origin. The Californian borderland represents a system of basins and ranges that compose the underwater margin and the Coastal Ranges of California and the basement within the Great Valley. In the depressions of the accretion orogen, which are small in size but feature high subsidence rates, significant thicknesses of deposits are accumulated (up to 6−8 km). In the depressions of the Californian borderland, they are represented by young Neogene (rarer Eocene-Oligocene) formations of mainly terrigenous or siliceous-terrigenous compositions. The active tectonic regime resulted in a sharp reduction of the age range of the oil and gas bearing deposits, which are represented only by Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic rocks. Full-scale oil and gas production here is performed in the Santa Barbara-Ventura and Santa Maria basins. The principal oil and gas bearing unit is the Monterrey Formation of the Middle Miocene. By January 2006, the production on the Californian borderland comprised about 17.8 million tons of oil and over 1 billion m3 of gas. Up to 1.4 billion tons of oil and 200 billion m3 of gas reserves are regarded to be not recovered on the Pacific coast of the United States in the region of the Californian borderland.
Original Russian Text © A. Zabanbark, 2008, published in Okeanologiya, 2008, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 139–148.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/335441x1887r76j4/
Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on April 18, 2010 at 6:04
RR, no frature stimulation required for this high permeability conventional reservoir.
Permalink Reply by Les Bamburg on April 18, 2010 at 6:03
This well was directionally drilled to a conventional reservoir. lThis technology is not really applicable to onshore non-conventional plays such as the Haynesville Shale that requires horizontal laterals and multistage fracs for the completion.
Permalink Reply by red rider on April 18, 2010 at 18:56
oh, ok! thanks, was thinking shale like haynesville, and how hard it would be for the distance.

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