Who's Drilling The Best Horizontal Wells -- February 2, 2024

Locator: 46716B.

Link here. 

Be sure to note the number one question asked by those who responded to this article.

LOL. 

I pointed this out years ago. 

If you want to know, reply to this post. 

Those in the "Bakken" plays, in order of "success":

• Kraken Oill & Gas
• Enerplus
• Neptune Energy
• Grayson Mill
• Hess
• Chord Energy

With the incredible wells MRO is reporting in the Bakken I was surprised MRO was not higher up the list. This suggests to me that MRO's play in the Bakken is much less than MRO's play in the Bakken and that the MRO wells in the Permian are not all that great compared to what MRO is doing in the Bakken.

Quick! How Long Does It Take To Drill A 2.5 Mile Long Horizontal In The Bakken -- November 14, 2017

Answer: three days.

Don't believe me? Listen to Lynn Helms at Platts.

And much more at the podcast.

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The Movie and Television Page

Belated "Happy Birthday" To Norman Lloyd

103 Years Old Last Week

Quick: who is the oldest working Hollywood actor?

From wiki:

Norman Lloyd (born Norman Perlmutter; November 8, 1914) is an American actor, producer and director with a career in entertainment spanning eight decades.

He has worked in every major facet of the industry including radio, theatre, television and film dating back to the Great Depression, and at 103 years of age is the oldest working Hollywood actor.

The series ran from 1982 to 1988: I don't recall seeing any of the episodes, but for some reason it seems I must have watched it. I left the United States in 1983 and remained overseas for 13 consecutive years while serving in the US Air Force. If I saw any of the episodes I would have seen the first season's episodes in 1982-1983 while stationed at Grand Forks AFB,  ND. But after June, 1983, any "American" television I saw until 1996 was on one station: Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS).

New Technology Saves 7 Days In Drilling Time

NDIC says it takes about 20 days to reach total depth.  It looks like about five days to reach vertical depth and fifteen days to reach  total depth from there. I don't read many well files, but of those I read, it doesn't seem like all that many wells are reaching TD in 20 days. I still use 30 days as a general rule of thumb. (The guys and gals in the field are probably laughing.)

A reader sent this story; it's very technical but worth reading even by a layman. High points:

• international conference; held in Amsterdam
• Forbes 500 oil services company: Weatherford
• Bakken used as a laboratory (again)
• new steering technology
• compared two wells

• well #2: horizontal rate with old technology: 31 feet/hour
• well #1: horizontal rate with new technology: 38 feet/hour

• well #2: length of lateral using old technology: 8,956 feet (failed to meed planned TD)
• well #1: length of lateral using new technology: 10,217 feet

• well #2: 8,956/30.67 = 292 hours of actual drilling with old technology
• well #1: 10,217/38.08 = 268 hours of actual drilling with new technology

Conclusion of the article:

As a result of the smoother wellbore, the operator had a trouble-free casing run in Well #1. The system consistently achieved more than 93% rotation in the lateral in both wells. This was a significant improvement from previous wells, which achieved roughly 70% rotation. On the first well, sliding time was reduced from 30% to 8%, saving seven days of rig time and the associated drilling costs.

As drilling progressed, these wells required frequent directional updates, due to formation faults. Consequently, this required many target changes for geosteering. ROPs in the first Bakken well were higher than the second well, since more time was spent sliding to correct the well path on #2 without TBS technology. Use of TBS technology on Well #1 enabled the operator to have precise steering control and drill a smoother wellbore. The second well reached TD early, due to an inability to overcome high frictional forces in the lateral leg.

From the linked article, this is the technology:

To improve performance in these [Bakken] laterals, operators have been looking for a while now, for an economic alternative to rotary steerable systems (RSS’s), while still retaining their basic benefits.

Lead author Wendell Bassarath said that a new system to achieve 3D directional control was developed to improve drilling efficiency, using targeted bit speed (TBS) technology. The system uses a conventional positive displacement motor with a bent housing and an MWD tool that mimics many of the features offered by an RSS. The steering technique was achieved by accurately modulating the flow of the drilling fluid through the drillstring.

This allowed rapid variations in the drilling parameters to accurately control the bit speed along the desired toolface setting. If wellbore objectives could not be achieved in rotary mode using TBS technology, then the mud motor could be oriented in a conventional manner to follow the well plan.

Random Note On Drilling Times to Total Depth

This is just a random comment comparing the length of time it took to get to total depth in the "old" days in the Bakken and how fast they are getting to total depth these days.

Both were in the Sanish, but by different operators, but about the same depth, about 16,500 feet.

• 16953, 440, Fidelity, Fladeland 11-15H, Sanish, t4/09; cum 163K 10/12; 29 days from spud to total depth; total depth = 16,100 feet;
• 23580, 1,295, Whiting, Iverson 41-14h, Sanish, t10/12; cum 6K 10/12; 12 days from spud to total depth; total depth = 16,576 feet;

Drilling Process in the Bakken -- for Newbies -- North Dakota, USA

Bakken wells are drilled with two rigs.

The first rig is a truck-mounted rig that drills down 2,000 feet, past the water table. This takes about three days.

Then, the "big rig" comes in generally one to three weeks later and drills to depth, about 9,000 feet down and 4,000 feet laterally for a short lateral and 9,000 feet for a long lateral. That takes about twenty-four days, +/- a half-dozen days or so, I believe.

Click here for chatter about same and scroll down to December 11, 2010.