Heel-To-Toe Siting of Wells -- Whiting in the Sanish

A long time ago I blogged about the radial effectiveness of horizontal drilling -- about a 500-foot radius and blogged about the fact that there was room for 4 to 5 wells across one mile (across one section). That was when "they" were only drilling one well per section. It was the BEXP Olson wells that first got me to blogging about that. To the best of my knowledge, I was the only one publicly blogging about that -- the radial effectiveness -- at that time. Since then, corporate presentations have verified that.

Along that same line, some time ago, I suggested that we would start seeing well siting heel-to-toe and toe-to-heel. I based this on an observation that the frack stages two miles away from the vertical pipe must be quite a challenge, suggesting that production from the distal end of the horizontal was not as good as that more proximal.  Even if fracking is as effective distally as proximally, it just seems the farther one gets away from the vertical, the less effective the "drainage." Tonight I see an example of this heel-to-toe, toe-to-heel siting. There are probably other examples, but this is the first example I've run across.

Go to the Sanish field on the NDIC GIS map server. Then to sections 25-154-92  and 30-154-91. In the former section, there are three wells sited on the far west, and running in a southeasterly direction. Then, something I had not seen before but something I suggested we would see at some point. In the latter section, at the far east are three wells running in a northwesterly direction.

With the scores of Whiting wells in the Sanish I am sure one can find other such examples, but for the most part this is a new phenomenon.

Assuming it is more cost effective to put all wells together on one pad, there must be some reason that Whiting is trying the heel-to-toe, toe-to-heel siting. 

If you search by well name on the NDIC GIS map server:

• 22156, 1,766, Whiting, Joy TTT 42-30XH, Sanish, t8/12; cum 321K 12/16;
• 22157, 1,110, Whiting, Theresa TTT 41-30TFX, Sanish, t8/12; cum 126K 12/16;
• 22500, 483, Whiting, Ben TTT 42-30TFX, Sanish, t6/12; cum 168K 12/16;