Do well drillers ever extend horizontals after they were developed?

Just a procedural question on drilling.  Does anyone know if a horizontal line is ever extended after it has been developed?   There is a producing well on my neighbors property that has a 2000 foot horizontal that ends at my property line.  As we are leased with different companies, I figured it would have went on for another 2-3,000 feet if we were leased with the same Co.  Lease is up in September, not sure which company to try to lease to the one that drilled on the neighbors, or the one I'm currently with..... My opinion is the "ship has sailed" and they don't extend horizontals after they have been fraced and put into production..... 

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Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on April 19, 2013 at 8:41am

38 degree API is light oil; essentially the same gravity as Brent.

The API gravity is not the same as the manner that Motor Oil is referred to (the API gravity is not the same as the weight of motor oil).

The higher the API gravity number, the lighter the oil.

The lower the API gravity number, the heavier the oil.

Mexican Maya Crude (Mayan mud) is around 22 degree API and is a heavy crude.

As a rule of thumb, the higher the API gravity, the lower the viscosity. There are some weird exceptions with waxy (lacustrine crude); but these are not present in our area of interest.

 

RE: "I am sure the farther west you go in the oil window it would get even heavier."

Unless the rocks had been sufficiently shallow that they would (at some time in their past) been subjected to degradation from bacteria (they like to chew on the lighter molecules), that would not necessarily be the case.

 

All IMHO,

                JS

 

Permalink Reply by TM on April 19, 2013 at 9:36am

It is interesting in the API gravity of oil in different counties. I seen the Frank well in Stark county had 47 degree oil, the cairns well in carrol had 52 degree condensate, the brace well in carrol had 60.1 degree oil. Dont know for sure but it seems the oil gets heavier the further west they drill.

Permalink Reply by Brian Powers on April 23, 2013 at 4:41am

TM-

38°API is moderate gravity oil and is probably of intermediate viscosity. The low viscosity oils that I worked with were in the 10-15° API range and needed to be thinned by dilution in order to pump.

 

Brian

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on April 19, 2013 at 10:20am
AreaMan and JS,
 
Sounds to me like you (both) believe the eastern Utica 'Black Oil' they talk about would be 'high quality, low viscosity' / comparable to API 38 Brent ?
That's good news !
 
J-O
Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on April 19, 2013 at 10:00am

Steam flood only to provide the pressure to lift then (if as you say the oil isn't too viscous and will flow readily anyway).

Then it sounds like the only concern would be to make sure they've done a good fracturing job (as you say - open more shale area to the bore - make it more permeable - loosen the squeeze).

Fracture and Re-fracture if necessary.

Permalink Reply by Jim on April 19, 2013 at 5:17am

Area Man,

I recently ran across an Oil/Drilling company that does not frack their horizontial wells.  Is this common?

If this does happen, can a driller re-enter a horizontial well and extend it?  If the answer is yes, then it could be extended at 600 foot stages for miles.

Permalink Reply by Jack Straw on April 19, 2013 at 6:09am

RE: "I recently ran across an Oil/Drilling company that does not frack their horizontial wells."

Reading this several thoughts came to mind:

Since the expense of fracing a well is a substantial percentage of the total costs of drilling and completing a well, could it be that they ultimately intend to frac; they are simply awaiting a return of more attractive commodity prices. Perhaps they want to build up an inventory of horizontal (unfraced) wells; awaiting a better economic climate before expending the substantial costs of fracing.

The monies saved in not fracing existing horizontal wells could be dedicated to drilling more (unfraced) horizontal wells. Then, when the commodity prices recover, they frac and complete. Why sell the Natural Gas at +/- $4/mcf if they believe that it will be worth (perhaps) +/-$6/mcf in a year's time.

Also, they may be waiting on infrastructure (pipelines, etc.); holding off on expending resources on fracing until the needed infrastructure is in place.

Another possibility is that the company is not fracing in order to preserve cash resources, while they strive to hold more acreage by drilling to HBP.

 

I would be surprised to learn that horizontal well were drilled, with no intent to frac at some future date.

 

All IMHO,

                 JS

Permalink Reply by Area Man on April 19, 2013 at 6:22am

Agree with everything JS says here.  There's not much point in drilling a horizontal well without the INTENTION to frac it.  It may be down the road some time and not immediately, but I've not really come across an instance of purposefully drilling a well knowing it will not ever be completed.  I'm sure some folks can offer examples, but that would be exceedingly rare.

 

Cheers!

Permalink Reply by Joseph-Ohio on April 19, 2013 at 12:43pm
AreaMan,
Thanks much for all of your
valued assistance.
J-O
Permalink Reply by Jim on April 22, 2013 at 4:26am

Area Man  "Agree with everything JS says here................"  It would seem logical for a Mom and Pop oil company  that it would be cheaper to just extend a horizontial without fracking than to drill another vertical.  Example would be Ashtabula County, Ohio.  Some of those vertical wells are lined up in a straight line and 1200 feet apart and the verticals are down 5000 feet.  Other cost savings would be not having to install pipelines near the surface.  Just as I thought about writing this reply, another landowner posted a discussion about DIY oil drillers on GMS.

I wonder if they drill horizontial without fracking.

www.gomarcellusshale.com/forum/topics/diy-backyard-oil

 

Permalink Reply by Area Man on April 22, 2013 at 9:34am

I won't get in to this too much since it's out of my realm (I just tell the drillers what I want and it magically happens) BUT from the discussions I've had with our guys, kicking off a lateral from an existing well isn't as easy as you'd think.  Once a well is set up for production, it is usually much cheaper to drill a new vertical down to your kick off point then use the existing wellbore.  I agree, from a mom and pop standpoint, perhaps that isn't the case but I can guarantee that DIY oil is NOT in a shale play.  These things are far too complicated and expensive to roll the dice.  I've seen some other threads pop up on here about pooling together and drilling a private well - I certainly don't disagree with the thought but the actual execution would be incredibly expensive, time consuming and risky.  I'd bet anything the fine gentlemen in the show are drilling shallw, conventional oil wells.

 

Anyway, that's my ramble.  Hopefully you can glean some info!

 

Cheers,

-AreaMan

Permalink Reply by Jim on April 22, 2013 at 10:12am

Thanks for your replies.  This discussion has been classroom educational.

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