Well (drilling) question?

[MarvB]

Question for miller, buzz, pointer, etc., or anyone who has seen or has been involed in this type of drilling.

Does the "new" deep well (drilling) technology take up any or more/less of a footprint than standard drilling? I don't really mean in regardls to approved spacing or support area (roads, stagging area, etc.) but the actual footprint of the well pad itself?

Was just curious about the impact of some of these 10K foot drillings I've been reading about and have never seen.

Thx

 

[1_pointer]

Met a gal from the Pinedale WY BLM office and IIRC she said the pads there take up a couple of acres. Don't know if that answers the question, but fortunately the office I work in doesn't have any oil/gas drilling to speak of.

 

[mtmiller]

We have shallow gas around here, so the pads here are relatively small compared to some of the deep stuff you are referring to. Most of the the stuff is 150'x200' in size. Because it is shallow, the time spent on the well is relatively short.

As for the stuff in Pinedale, pretty sure their targets are quite a bit deeper. This obviously will increase the size of the pad and increase the amount of time spent during the driling process. Also, since their targets are deeper, there is more opportunity for directional drilling and multiple wells on a single pad.

Damn, what was the question??? Yeah, the pad will leave a larger foot print than shallower wells.

 

[MarvB]

Thanks pointer/miller...was curious about the difference in pad size/footprint for something of that nature. 10K plus well depth boggles my (feable) mind. Just wondered if the ability to "go deep" and directional would (even with the larger initial pads) have an overall less enviro impact then the smaller grab and go drillings.

Here's a little clip regarding one of Barrett's Utah explorations:

Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp.'s deep test well in northeast Utah's West Tavaputs Plateau was named by Oil and Gas Investor magazine as the publication's Discovery of the Year for 2005.

Within months of forming the company in 2002, Barrett (BBC) invested $8 million to acquire more than 47,000 acres of oil and gas leases and production of less than one MMcfe/d in and around the West Tavaputs Plateau area located northeast of Price in Carbon County, Utah. The company currently is producing more than 50 MMcf/d (gross) from the area.

To test the concept for gas deeper than 12,000 feet, BBC invested another $8 million on a seismic survey of West Tavaputs. The survey delineated two anticlinal closures, each ranging in size from 4,000 to 5,000 acres.

"It's generally believed that most of these classic gas traps have been found," said Kurt Reinecke, BBC southern division vice president of exploration. "We are pleased with these initial results, particularly in light of the fact that we have yet to drill what appear to be the best locations as identified by the seismic survey."

Reinecke said that topographic relief in the area is dramatic: nearly 2,500 feet from the canyon bottoms to the top of the plateau, making for challenging operations. The company's deep location required a highly directional well with more than 3,200 feet of lateral offset. The well was spudded in May 2005 and took 100 days to drill at a cost of about $9 million. Total measured depth was 15,325 feet with a true vertical depth of 14,920 feet.

BBC completed the well to the Navajo, Entrada and Dakota formations, with additional potential pay zones encountered in the shallower Wasatch, North Horn, Price River, and Mancos formations, all of which are to be tested at a later date. BBC plans to drill two and possibly as many as six deep wells to the Dakota/Jurassic formation during 2006, with plans to spud the first offset well in the second quarter. BBC has identified at least 35 potential well locations.

 

[1_pointer]

That is hella deep! I'm gonna try to get to Vernal or Price this summer to see the oil fields first hand. I'll try to get a good estimate of the size of the pads.

 

[MarvB]

Yup...no dropping a rock in that well and listening for it to hit bottom

If you get over there post some pics upon return hump

 

[1_pointer]

Will do. Gonna wait for warmer weather.