Coiled Tube fracking consists of using a Coiled Tubing Unit (CTU) to set bridge plugs, perforate and using CTU packers to frack against. If one uses larger diameter Coiled Tubing, you do not run into the severe pressure drops across the ball drop seats of the frack sleeve type completions.
The "rate" you pump the frack jobs at is by far the most important factor of all in regards to the most effective frack jobs in the Bakken and Three Forks. Higher rates = way better fracks. That's why so many operators are going to cemented liners these days versus frack packers and sliding sleeves. Plus, it gives you flexibility in going back and re-completing the wells down the road way easier than utilizing frack packers.
Coiled tubing fracking is just a variation of cemented liners "plug and perf" completions.This is a great note; I've added to my "Trackin' the Frackin'" page.
My guess is the day of sliding sleeves/frack packers is rapidly coming to an end in North Dakota.
Coiled Tube fracking became a "big deal" when it was discussed at length in Whiting's 1Q14 earnings conference call.
So what they are saying is , in the next 30 years some/many of the Bakken TF wells could be recompleted multiple to Many times, especially if you have a well in a hot production area. don
ReplyDeleteYes, I will probably do a stand-alone post on this, but this is how I see it.
DeleteUnconventional shale is a lot like a coal seam, just slightly (or maybe a lot) harder than lignite. However much oil is tied up in that seam, they are only getting 1 - 8% of the oil, for various reasons. In the near term, the 1-percenters are due to poor completion or bad luck. The eight-percenters are getting great completions and using great techniques (even if one has the right technique/process, you have to do it right).
But regardless of whether you are a one-percenter or an eight-percenter, the reason you max out is because over time the horizontal fails or the sand/ceramic is crushed under all that weight and no longer keeps the pores open for the oil to dribble through or the stuff just gets gummed up.
With the new coiled tube fracking, the writer suggests it is easier to go back in and re-frack.
The point is that the reason operators only get 1 - 8% is for technical reasons. God did not issue a commandment that said "Ye shall get only 8% and then ye gotta leave." It was simply that man-made technology limited success rates at less than ten percent (I get a kick out of this, talking about 10% return; I remember when I first started blogging, USGS, UND, and others were taking about a success rate of only 1 - 3% -- and now a couple of years later, we talking 8%).
Now, what makes this even more interesting is that we have wildcats, discovery wells, development wells, and wells in the "sweet spots." So, which wells will get re-fracked? Yup, the companies will know precisely where the sweet spots are.
And something tells me Coiled Tube in its present configuration is not the last word on fracking.
Look at what has been happening in the Ft Worth Basin with "re-fracks" of old Barnett Shale wells. They have been seeing recoveries of the production rates of the wells to close to original IP's. No reason why this shouldn't occur in North Dakota. My opinion is that re-fracks in North Dakota formations would be even better than what they are seeing in Texas Barnett Shale wells due to the Bakken and Three Forks are primarily oil whereas the Barnett is gas. Gas produces by a different mechanism than oil. Gas produces by "pressure depletion" and tends to have way higher recovery efficiencies, whereas oil is less mobile and traps a way higher percent of oil due to residual phase and lack of production efficiency due to rock heterogeneity. Therefore, there is a much bigger "target" for re-fracks in oil-prone rocks as compared to gas formations such the Barnett and Marcellus. Even bigger and better targets for higher recovery efficiencies would be formations such as the Sussex and Shannon Sands down in the Powder River Basin, which are a very condensate-rich gas/oil which could also have higher production efficiencies due to the nature of the petroleum contained in the rock at reservoir pressures.
ReplyDeleteYes, we have a long way to go in the Bakken, that is the primary reason I've hedged my bets for the rest of my oil career up in North Dakota (I've got 30 years of experience already).
Thank you for taking time to write, and especially for the good information. I will have to do a stand-alone post on this sometime.
DeleteIf one drives through Williston, North Dakota, the center for Bakken operations, one gets the sense that all those industrial parks are not going up simply for the current drilling and new drilling over the next 10 - 15 years (most operators tell you they have 10 - 15 years of new drilling inventory).
The "stuff" going up in Williston, and the expansion of existing company footprints in and around Williston suggest these folks are not planning for 10 - 15 years. In fact, one almost gets the feeling that the service companies (Weatherford, Schlumberger, Halliburton, GE Oil & Gas, Sanjel, and a gazillion other smaller operations are looking at well maintenance, servicing, re-fracking. The current drilling is simply prologue.
I had not really thought about that until now, but when driving around Williston, and then, especially, comparing it to the absolute lack of any industrial activity between Williston to the north and Dallas to the south (with some exceptions), there is a lot of money being bet on the Bakken for decades to come.
The Bakken, by the way, has one more thing going for it. If there is an over-production of oil in North America, and the price of oil starts to collapse, the western Canadian oil sands will decrease production first (based on cost considerations).
Absolutely agreed on the infrastructure comment....look at the size of the facilities put up by Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes in Williston....they are betting large on North Dakota and they are also betting on a bright and long-lasting future. Despite what many leftists think and say about Dick Cheney, Halliburton did not get where they are by hiring a bunch of dummies at the top.
DeleteAs noted above: I've been visiting Williston on a regular basis since 2007, but mostly after 20011. I saw the SLB and BHI buildings going up; I saw the Halliburton complex being built ... in fact, I think I've seen them all being built. I've driven through all the industrial parks when they were just beginning to move dirt. And I just assumed this was all necessary for drilling 2,000 Bakken wells each year. But the building continues, and the footprints of the various complexes seem larger than they need to be. But I didn't think about that until this last trip ... and then it struck me. The industry is planning for a lot more than just drilling 2,000 wells/year.
DeleteMainstream media is very good at demonizing individuals by name -- those individuals they want to demonize. Which leads to another topic but for a later date.