Putting in Pipelines BEFORE Drilling / Sixteen (16) Wells Per Pad -- Wyoming

In the past, pipelines were laid AFTER the wells were drilled. When the ratio of dry wells to successful wells is on the order of 14 to 1, it does not make environmental or financial sense to lay wells for every proposed well, and that's why there is flaring.

However, when the ratio of successful wells to dry wells is on the order of 1,000 successful wells to one dry well, maybe it's time to re-think this industry standard.

Now, for the first time I have come across this change in thinking. Encana plans to put in natural gas pipelines BEFORE drilling.

Encana Oil & Gas, USA proposes to drill as many as 3,500 gas wells on 220 square miles of as-yet undrilled land in the Upper Green River Basin [Wyoming]. The drilling would take place over 10 years.

Encana plans to use the most up-to-date drilling techniques to keep environmental damage to a minimum.That would include drilling up to 16 wells per well pad, with no more than four pads per square mile.

Pipelines would be installed from the start to collect gas condensate and produced water — gas production byproducts that otherwise would require lots of truck traffic to haul out, he said.

Note the number of wells/pad. A reminder: a section is generally one square mile.