Updates
It does appear that Surge believes Madison/Mission Canyon may be a second target from the Spearfish. Even though NDIC names the Spearfish to be Spearfish Madison, the drilling lands in the Spearfish on the 15 or so wells that EOG, Corinthian and Legacy have drilled since horiz drilling started in 2009 in Bottineau County. Most of the older wells in this area of ND targeted the Madison using vert drilling. These are now stripper or abandoned. It will be interesting to find out more about the Mission Canyon hearings as these are right in the middle of what has been for the last 3 years an attempt to establish a Spearfish play. If the objective is Mission Canyon, then these two wells will be slightly deeper as the Spearfish overlays the Madison in this area. It will also will be interesting to find out if horiz Madison is the objective. Sure seems as tho Surge saw something on the seismic in mc and want a closer look.
Original Post
This is a PDF of a study comparing fracking long and short laterals in the Canadian Bakken just north of North Dakota.
I'm attaching a Spearfish label even though this has to do with the Bakken.
My interest in this is piqued by the recent acquisition of the Ritchie Bottineau Spearfish wells by Surge Energy/Corinthian Energy. According to Surge Energy's March 8, 2011, corporate presentation, slide 7, Surge Energy has drilled approximately 100 horizontal wells in the Canadian Spearfish between January, 2008, and April, 2010.
On slide 15 of that presentation, it is noted that Surge has drilled five (5) horizontal Spearfish wells just on the other side of the North Dakota border. It is costing them $1.2 million to drill a well, compared to $6 - 8 million for a typical North Dakota Bakken well.
Based on the well file reports and the GIS map server it appears the two Bernstein Spearfish wells were simply fracked vertical wells. Surge's core competency is horizontal fracturing of the Spearfish and it's very likely that Surge will go back into the Bottineau Spearfish wells and put in horizontal laterals.
Speaking of long laterals, ND's longest #20037 at 24,550 feet just posted an update on its well file where they lost all gamma readings after 21500 and drilled to TD at 24550 without any readings. Does this mean anything for the long laterals going forward or is it just that something happened????
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean. Yes, the chart has this typed:
ReplyDelete"Gamma stopped working at 21,884 MD. Drilling ahead without gamma data."
This is way beyond what I know. But it is fun to speculate; that's how we learn.
I would assume this is not unheard of, where for some reason "gamma stops working." At this point it probably doesn't matter. The gamma keeps them "in the seam." They can assume at this depth the seam is fairly horizontal, and hopefully the drill bit will keep moving straight ahead (not up or down). Even if if the drill bit leaves the seam, they remained in the seam to a point at least 21,884 feet, an extended long lateral.
I don't see this as a problem. Their option would have been to pull the drill bit up -- hugely expensive in time, trouble shoot the gamma detector, and then put the drill bit back down (I don't know all that would entail, nor do I know how the gamma detector is attached to the end of the drill bit -- obviously they weighed the risks/benefits/cost analysis and pressed on.
Core samples collected to TD, however.
So, unless I'm missing something, they reached planned TD and are probably happy, and now waiting for results. (Actually, I posted on March 2, 2011, they probably reached TD: http://milliondollarway.blogspot.com/2011/03/longest-horizontal-to-date-appears-to.html. Someone sent me a note that "they" were successful in reaching TD.)
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Very, very interesting, and again, opportunity to learn something.