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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 27, 2021 at 6:43

Thomas, there are a number of possibilities but if more than one well is shut-in, I think it would not be for work over maintenance.  Looking at Section 2, 15N-10W on SONRIS, my best guess is that shutting in the Section 2 wells would be related to the Aethon wells next door in Section 3 that will be completed (fracked) in the near future.  As the play has matured, it has come to light that there are a considerable number of instances of "communication" between wells.  "Frac Hits". We debated communication several times over the early years of development but there was little publicly available hard evidence.  In some cases involving communication, well blow outs caused evacuations and emergency orders from the state.  Those were relatively rare.  I am seeing more cases of reported communication now but some are not widely reported by local media.  I stumble across them from time to time through correspondence between an operator and the state in the Document Access portion of the database.

Operators want to limit frac hits on nearby wells as much as possible.  It can cause problems between "parent" and "child wells".  The parent wells being the older, original unit wells or any group of producing older wells.  The child wells are the new wells being fracked in relatively close proximity.  By shutting in parent wells, the frac cylinders for those wells begin to build up pressure.  The more formation pressure each has, the lesser the chance of a frac hit or, in case of a frac hit, less reservoir connection.  Pressure is production and the most important element of Haynesville/Bossier shale wells is the fact that they are "over pressured".  When a well loses pressure, there is a corresponding drop off in production.  I suspect that the potential for cross well communication has increased since Haynesville operators moved to "high intensity" fracks.  The volume of water pumped and the higher pumping pressures break up a lot more rock and therefore cause a greater potential for frac hits.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas C. McKowen, IV on September 27, 2021 at 7:13

Thanks for the information.  Both producing wells were shut-in, so your best guess is probably correct.

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Permalink Reply by Steve P on September 27, 2021 at 10:40

I recently noticed this phenomena in wells operating in units in which I own an interest.  There was an existing pair of producing wells that were several years old.  then 3 new wells were drilled.  At about the same time the new wells were completed, there was a precipitous drop in production from the older wells.  I didn’t notice that the records reflected that the older wells were shut in for a few weeks, but that would explain the sharp drop in production for the month the new wells were being fracked.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on September 27, 2021 at 10:47

It's all about the pressure.  The lower the pressure of the frac cylinder in an older adjacent well, the greater the risk from fracking near by new wells. The frac hits are drawn to the lower pressure zones.

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