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Permalink Reply by E Johnson on May 23, 2011 at 8:10am

My understanding that only a vertical well was drilled in the fall - cores were taken.  They may have attempted to frac the vertical section some time later.  What I believe you are currently seeing is them re-entering the hole to drill the horizontal leg.

Permalink Reply by Rich Koehler on May 23, 2011 at 1:39pm

My understanding is each horizontal run needs it's own hole from the surface down.  I have never heard of branching several collection tubes from the same hole.  It would seem that would be a recipe for problems with cross contamination between the various branches.  I am not a driller, just one who has done a little reading and has a somewhat mechanical mind.   There is a site from somewhere in Canada that shows 6 or 8 wells from the same pad, extolling the efficiency of needing only one pad thanks to horizontal drilling, reducing environmental impact by reducing the number of roads, pads, collection pipelines, etc.  Each well has its  own directional horizontal run in the same formation, radiating outward like spokes of a wheel.  The pad is the hub.