Huge Article For Newbies And Investors; 36 Wells From A Single Pad; Pad Drilling Will Become The Norm In The Bakken -- Rigzone

The end of the article provides some "tips" for investors. But first, here are the six tech advances as reported by Rigzone "changing the fossil fuels game."

Pad drilling is one of the six tech advances:

One of the greatest drilling developments of the last decade is multiple well pads, which some like to refer to as “Octopus” technology.

Imagine gaining access to multiple buried wells at the same time, from a single pad site. This is what “Octopus” technology is doing, first in a canyon in northwestern Colorado in the Piceance Shale Formation and then in the Marcellus shale. It's definitely not your traditional horizontal drilling.

Traditionally, to drill a single well, a company needs a pad or land site for each well drilled. Each of these pads covers an average of 7 acres. The Octopus allows for multiple well drilling from a single pad, which can handle between 4 and 18 wells. So, a single pad on 7 acres can now be used to drill on up to 2,000 acres of reserves. More than anything, it means that drilling will be faster, faster, faster … And less expensive in the long run once it renders it unnecessary to break down rigs and put them together again at the next drilling location. It's simple math: 4 pads usually equals 4 wells; now 1 pad can equal between 4 and 18 wells.

Here's how the technology works: A well pad is set up and the first well is drilled, then the rig literally “crawls” on its hydraulic tentacles to another drill location from the same pad, repeatedly. And it's multi-directional. It takes about two hours between each well drilling. With traditional horizontal drilling methods, it takes about five days to move from pad to pad and start drilling a new well.

Last year, Devon Energy (DVN) drilled 36 wells from a single pad site using Octopus technology in the Marcellus Shale. More recently, Encana (ECA) drilled 51 wells covering 640 underground acres from a single pad site with a surface area of only 4.6 acres in Colorado. Multi-well pad drilling is also revolutionizing drilling in Bakken, and this is definitely the long-term outlook for shale. It will become the norm.

It's also good (or at least slightly better) news for the environment because it means less drilling disturbance on the surface as we render more of the process underground.

Random Look At Two 9-Well Hess Pads in Robinson Lake; Potentially 18-Well Pads

 This started out as a 6-well pad, but three more wells have been added.

This started out as a 6-well pad, but three more wells have been added.

The original 6-well pad (the original post), 2560-acre spacing; this is the only 2560-acre spacing unit in the Robinson Lake. I assume there will eventually be overlapping 2560-acre spacing units in the rest of the Robinson Lake. Also, note how long ago the original Cvancara wells were put in -- back in late 2011, and they already had 2560-acre spacing units. The original wells are about 1.5 years old and already exceed 100,000 bbls total production:

• 19899, 603, Hess, EN-Fretheim A-155-93-3334H-3, Robinson Lake, t4/12; cum 82K 2/13;
• 19900, 1,037, Hess, EN-Cvancara A-155-93-3231H-3, Robinson Lake, t12/11; cum 129K 2/13;
• 19901, 668, Hess, EN-Fretheim A-155-93-3334H-2, Robinson Lake, t11/11; cum 112K 2/13;
• 19902, 1,132, Hess, EN-Cvancara A-155-93-3231H-2, Robinson Lake, t11/11; cum 151K 2/13;
• 19903, 795, Hess, EN-Fretheim A-155-93-3334H-1, Robinson Lake, t11/11; cum 133K 2/13;
• 19905, 1,341, Hess, EN-Cvancara A-155-93-3231H-1, Robinson Lake, t10/11; cum 199K 2/13;

Now, add three more:

• 24868, drl, Hess, EN-Fretheim A 155-93-3334H-9, Robinson Lake,
• 24869, 868, Hess, EN-Fretheim A 155-93-3334H-8, Robinson Lake, t8/13; cum 84K 6/14;
• 24870, 662, Hess, EN-Fretheim A 155-93-3334H-7, Robinson Lake, t8/13; cum 74K 6/14;

Also, note: for the Fretheim wells, the shorthand is Fretheim-1; Fretheim-2; Fretheim-3; Fretheim-7; Fretheim-8; and, Fretheim-9; suggesting that #4, #5, and #6 are yet to be filled in (and they were; see below). Doing the same for the Cvancara wells, and one quickly has an 18-well pad. Lynn Helms, Director/NDIC, recently mentioned that we will be seeing 18-well pads very, very soon.

25788, 762, Hess, EN-Cvancara A-155-93-3334H-6, Robinson Lake, t4/14; cum 35K 6/14;
25787, 758, Hess, EN-Cvancara A-155-93-3334H-5, Robinson Lake, t4/14; cum 36K 6/14;
25786, 1,121, Hess, EN-Cvancara A-155-93-3334H-4, Robinson Lake, t4/14; cum 51K 6/14;
28576, conf, Hess, EN-Fretheim A-155-93-3334H-4, Robinson Lake,
28575, conf, Hess, EN-Fretheim A-155-93-3334H-5, Robinson Lake,
28574, conf, Hess, EN-Fretheim A-155-93-3334H-6, Robinson Lake, 

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Likewise, this started out as a 6-well pad in Robinson Lake, but three more wells have been added. First, the original 6 wells:

• 19074, 629, Hess, EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-1; RL, Bkn, t12/10; cum 107K2/13;
• 19075, 225, Hess, EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-2; RL, Bkn, s8/10; t5/11; cum 91K2/13;
• 19076, 1,325, Hess, EN-Frandson-154-93-2116H-3; RL, Bkn, s8/10; t8/11; cum 215K 2/13;
• 19077, 717, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-1; RL, Bkn, s7/10; t2/11; cum 141K 2/13;
• 19078, 941, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-2; RL, Bkn, s8/10; t7/11; cum 150K 2/13;
• 19079, 1,125, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-3; RL, Bkn, s8/10; t8/11; cum 197K 2/13;

Now, these three wells have been added:

• 25203, conf, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-4, Robinson Lake,
• 25204, conf, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-5, Robinson Lake,
• 25205, conf, Hess, EN-Trinity-154-93-2833H-6, Robinson Lake,

Unlike the first 9-well pad discussed above, which was on 2560-acre spacing, this 9-well pad is on1280-acre spacing.