Operator reduced drilling and completion time 50 percent

Overview 

The Haynesville play stretches across northwest Louisiana and east Texas. Its tight shales have higher porosities – and gas content – than most, making it very attractive to developers. However, its geology also provides extreme technical challenges that demand state-of-the-art horizontal drilling capabilities, and high-temperature tools and technologies. In 2008, a large oil company partnered with Halliburton to provide integrated drilling and completion services for its new horizontal drilling program in the Haynesville Shale. Through continual process improvements, the operator and Halliburton have brought drilling and completion days down 50 percent – saving millions of dollars per well. The operator recently drilled one of these challenging wells in just 26 days. The operator has also more than doubled the estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of initial wells. Due to the program’s success, the oil company plans to drill more than 70 wells in 2011, and another 70 in 2012.

Challenge 

The Haynesville Shale is one of the largest onshore natural gas resources in the United States. Conservative estimates show 168 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it the fourth-largest gas field in the world. However, the area’s geophysical properties present operators with a host of unique challenges. The play is deeper and hotter than comparable North American unconventional gas plays. As a result, wells in the Haynesville Shale take longer to drill and require more advanced technology. 

Solution

Because all of the tools were pushing their operating limits, Halliburton implemented condition-based maintenance. CBM increased reliability and availability by allowing Halliburton to service equipment based on recorded vibration, temperature and pressure data. This helped enhance drilling efficiency by preventing costly, time-consuming breakdowns. For example, Halliburton helped the operator increase production intervals (curve and lateral section) drilled with one BHA by 20 percent since 2010. Each production interval drilled with one BHA in one run helps the operator save approximately three drilling days.

Halliburton moved completions operations from a day schedule to a 24-hour schedule. This enabled Halliburton to improve transitions between services and minimize downtime. Previously, teams would complete one-and-a-half frac stages per day. Now the operator and Halliburton can complete more than four stages per day. Because of this, completion days have dropped from more than 10 days to five or less.

Result

Due to the success of the program, the operator plans to drill more than 70 wells in 2011, and another 70 in 2012. To drill and complete wells even faster, the operator and Halliburton are transitioning to pad operations. Pad operations enable Halliburton to provide services for multiple wells at the same time. This approach enabled Halliburton to drill one of the first pad wells in just 26 days. It also enabled Halliburton to perform the best stimulation to date – six fracturing treatments in one day.