HORIZONTAL DRILLING STILL FANNING OUT IN U.S.

Nov. 26, 1990
G. Alan Petzet Exploration Editor Horizontal drilling is spreading rapidly in U.S. onshore basins. The Texas Railroad Commission has granted 929 horizontal well drilling permits through September 1990 since it issued the first to Exxon Co. U.S.A. for a horizontal well in Giddings field in Burleson County Aug. 1, 1984. In North Central Louisiana, OXY U.S.A. Inc., Houston, has placed on production a horizontal well producing oil from the Cruse sand member of Eocene Wilcox.
G. Alan Petzet
Exploration Editor

Horizontal drilling is spreading rapidly in U.S. onshore basins.

The Texas Railroad Commission has granted 929 horizontal well drilling permits through September 1990 since it issued the first to Exxon Co. U.S.A. for a horizontal well in Giddings field in Burleson County Aug. 1, 1984.

In North Central Louisiana, OXY U.S.A. Inc., Houston, has placed on production a horizontal well producing oil from the Cruse sand member of Eocene Wilcox.

OXY's 13-1 Tremont H in 3-9n-2e, Olla field, LaSalle Parish, is producing 368 b/d of oil without water, Production is through slotted liner with a submersible pump landed at 2,220 ft at 61 in the angle build portion of the hole.

From a kickoff point at 1,642 ft, OXY drilled southwest to 3,543 ft measured depth and set 7 in. liner, the bottom 300 ft of which is slotted. Of 785 ft of hole drilled in Cruse sand, 711 ft was at 901.

A typical vertical Cruse completion in Olla field initially produces 50-100 b/d of oil. The field is about 40 miles south of Monroe, La.

Another operator in North Dakota is attempting to stimulate and complete what may be the first Mississippian Bakken horizontal well in which casing was cemented top to bottom.

Meanwhile, horizontal drilling is picking up in the Cretaceous Niobrara chalk in several Rocky Mountain basins.

Other operators are trying various forms of the technique in Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas outside the hot Austin chalk play.

TEXAS PERMITS

TRC issued 104 permits for horizontal wells during September 1990, raising the 1990 state total to 729. That compares with 127 drilling permits for horizontal wells issued in all of 1989.

Of the 1 990 total, 602 permits were for wells in Pearsall field, including 331 in Frio County, 108 in Zavala County, and 97 in Dimmit County.

Petroleum Information Corp. reports Pearsall field production climbed to 50,161 b/d of oil in July 1990 from 4,246 b/d in January 1989.

TRC issued 180 permits for horizontal wells through Sept. 30 in Giddings field, including 111 in Burleson County, 38 in Lee County, and 28 in Fayette County.

The commission has issued horizontal permits to drill in 47 counties. Two other leading concentrations of permits are in Gonzales County with 51 and Wilson County with 18.

One of the most recent completions in the Austin chalk trend is Santa Fe Energy Partners LP, Houston, 1 Meneley, in Gonzales County.

Initial completion rate was 533 b/d of oil from a 3,800 ft horizontal extension at a depth of 7,700 ft.

Santa Fe is preparing to test a second horizontal well, 1 Cook, with a 4,400 ft horizontal extension at 6,200 ft, and spudded a third well, 1 Gescheidle.

A fourth horizontal well is to be drilled next month, and a five well development program is planned in 1991.

Santa Fe holds a 50% working interest and is operator of the 13,000 acre prospect in Gonzales and Karnes counties.

Enserch Exploration Partners Ltd., Dallas, holds the other 50%. Santa Fe and Enserch are pursuing more acreage.

BAKKEN EFFORT

Edisto Resources Corp., Dallas, was preparing to shoot additional holes in Bakken in its 18-1H Kovaloff, Dunn County, N.D.

Most Bakken horizontal completion attempts have involved slotted casing left uncemented in the pay zone.

A bond log showed sufficient bonding to provide the zonal isolation the operator sought.

Edisto perforated 5 1/2 in. casing in three intervals along a 200 ft horizontal section in Bakken and swabbed the well dry. A limited entry type frac job attempted last week screened out prematurely, and the operator planned to perforate more Bakken within the three intervals.

The Williston basin well offsets a vertical Bakken oil well in Murphy Creek field.

NIOBRARA ACTION

Union Pacific Resources Co. gave a boost to Niobrara prospects with a good test at its first horizontal well in Silo field, Laramie County, Wyo.

UP's 1H Antelope 9-11 flowed 1,462 bbl of oil in 21 hr through a 44/64 in. choke with 225 psi flowing tubing pressure.

Horizontal displacement of 2,529 ft includes 2,037 ft in Niobrara.

Charles M. Strain, an analyst with Lovett Underwood Neuhaus & Webb, Houston, considers it likely the Niobrara will ultimately produce more oil from horizontal wells than the Austin chalk.

He notes the formation's much larger areal extent than Austin chalk. Niobrara underlies part of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Canada, and the Arctic.

Four Niobrara horizontal wells had been drilled and four more were being drilled in late October, and the industry's technical learning curve is much lower there than in the chalk.

Paul Liebman, an analyst with Petrie Parkman & Co., Denver, said, "The initial series of grassroots Niobrara horizontal tests drilled in the Denver-Julesburg and Sand Wash basins over the past several months have been plagued by mechanical problems with associated delays and significant cost overruns."

The Niobrara exploration concept involves identifying the areas in which Niobrara attained sufficient burial depth to fall within the oil generating window and was subjected to postdeposition structural movement that caused extensive fracturing in its more brittle members, Liebman said.

In the Sand Wash basin, however, fracturing is more related to structural flexures and faulting along the flanks of anticlines and thus tends to be more localized.

OTHER FORMATIONS, AREAS

Here are other formations and areas in which onshore horizontal drilling is planned:

  • Mississippian Heath, a shaly limestone also called Van Duzen, is the objective at an ultrashort radial horizontal well planned in Devil's Basin field, Musselshell County, Mont., Montana Oil Journal, Billings, reported.

    Golden Globe Engineering Co., Billings, received state approval for a 200 ft lateral. Location was not specified. The field is north of Billings in 11n-24e.

  • Austin chalk at true vertical depth of 9,565 ft is the objective at the first horizontal well in Karnes County, TRC District 2. Leede Oil & Gas, Englewood, Colo., 1 Schoenfeld is to achieve 4,608 ft of horizontal displacement, including 4,308 ft in Austin chalk.

    Location is in Daniel B. McConnell survey, A-191, 2 1/2 miles northwest of Elm Creek field, which has produced oil from Austin chalk and Buda.

  • Ordovician Viola is one of several possible horizontal drilling targets on a prospect in southern Oklahoma.

    Esco Exploration Inc., Tulsa, an affiliate of Edisto, has assembled a 10,000 acre block and is attempting to interest partners in the prospect on which Viola underwent vertical development in the early 1980s.

  • Oil in Mississippian is the objective at a reentry planned in northern Oklahoma.

    Ceja Corp., Tulsa, plans to reenter 1-H Donald, 31-29n-5w, in Northeast Lyle field, Grant County. On vertical completion in September 1988, the well flowed 71 b/d of oil and 545 Mcfd of gas from perforations at 4,980-5,120 ft.

    It had produced 13,642 bbl of oil and 59.5 MMcf of gas through July 1990 and was producing 16 b/d of oil.

    Mississippi was originally logged at 4,615-5,188 ft, PI reported.

    Ceja plans to turn the wellbore north 20 west and drill 3,740 ft in Mississippi to a bottomhole location at 5,120 true vertical depth ft in 30-29n-5w.

  • Cretaceous Saratoga chalk at 2,160-70 ft is the objective at two wells in Shelby County, East Texas. Maxwell Oil & Gas Co., Kilgore, staked the wells in Center field, about 3 1/2 miles west of Shelbyville.

Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.