Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 2, 2014 at 3:05

That's an interesting rumor, William.  The Sharp well was the 8th. L SMK well that SWN drilled so there was a fair amount of science and operational experienced generated from prior wells.  The Sharp exhibited the highest Initial Production of any SWN wells completed up until that point in time.  Since the Sharp is a vertical well and there are only 3 frac stages it would seem to be a much more straight forward completion design compared to a horizontal completion.

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Permalink Reply by William J Milstead Jr on May 2, 2014 at 3:26

Skip.... yes you would think they'd have right with all the prior experience.... I'm just repeating what we were told by a contact at SWN and others who are in the area...

We received our first check from SWN and they advised to call on or about the 25th of each month regarding monthly disbursements and this is what we were told.

Thank you for the quick response.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 2, 2014 at 3:40

William, I find it unusual, and unprofessional. for a company to make statements about employees who have been fired.  Particularly blaming them to lessors for the poor performance of a well.  If the frac design or execution was poor it certainly was not supported by the state IP test of the well. 

The Sharp is in the section immediately south of the MILSTEAD 15 #1 which SWN reports had IP of 28 BOPD and 161 MCFD.  If several engineers were fired over the Sharp well I'd hate to be the ones in charge of the Milstead.

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Permalink Reply by William J Milstead Jr on May 2, 2014 at 3:52

Skip,

My apologies, just off the phone with my Dad.... he indicates the fracking error was on our well... the Milstead 1, not the Sharp well and that some type of acid injection was being done to correct it. 

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 2, 2014 at 4:07

Thanks for the clarification, William.  A light acid frac is often used on calcareous formations such as chalks.  Hopefully it will clean up the formation in the frac cylinder and improve the flow of the well.

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Permalink Reply by jim weyland on May 2, 2014 at 4:10

acidizing is done to stimulate a well's production. i'm not aware that its done to remediate a frack job gone bad.

http://www.halliburton.com/public/pe/contents/Papers_and_Articles/w...

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 2, 2014 at 4:55

jim, have you ever heard of a horizontal well being re-fractured?

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Permalink Reply by jim weyland on May 2, 2014 at 5:02

no, sir. 

but, my guess is that its doable.

imo, technically, the only difference in a vertical well frack and a horizontal well frack is the latter's much greater magnitude/scope/stages of work.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 2, 2014 at 5:15

Thanks, jim.  I made some off site inquiries and didn't find any evidence of re-fracturing in horizontal wells although it is quite common in vertical wells.  There are some service companies touting designs for the re-fracture of horizontal wells on the Internet but I can't find where any are being utilized in the field.

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Permalink Reply by JMan on May 5, 2014 at 2:55

Skip,

Just an FYI but one or two companies are or have refraced Eagle Ford wells.  I know Talisman was talking about it but not sure if they ever did it.

Permalink Reply by 1kw6x71km1v37 on May 2, 2014 at 5:01

Acidizing was used frequently on early west LA Austin Chalk wells to remove drilling mud restricting movement in the naturally fractured rock. Sometimes there was not much improvement in flow. Sometimes when flow improved, the chalk collapsed to varying degrees. Every well was different. Some wells collapsed downhole enough the wells were not produced. The hydrocarbons are still down there. This was back in the days before slotted liners were available. Underbalanced drilling seemed tosignificantly  offset some of the difficulties with plugged fractures.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 5, 2014 at 3:13

Jman, if it was a successful and cost effective process that improved production, I would expect to see a lot more written about it.  Can you give me the names of those Eagle Ford companies and wells? 

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