Yesterday’s post on multi-well pad drilling saw lots of visitors from The Million Dollar Way. Bruce Oksol linked to the post in his discussion, Multi-Well Pad Drilling In The Bakken.
He has discussed this pad before. See his post for links.
Mr. Oksol links to a photo of the site taken by Vern Whitten: Vern Whitten Fall Portfolio. Since I try really hard to avoid copyright violations, you won’t see his photo on this blog. Instead you can see Mr. Whitten’s photo at this link. It is photo 28 of 39.
Incredible view from an incredible photographer.
In the MDW post, stats for the 15 wells shows initial production rates ranging from 333 bopd to 850 bopd. I calculated an average of 604 bopd IP. Total depths were reached between April 2012 and June 2014.
Rob Port of Say Anything Blog chimes in on Amy Dalrymple’s column: Competition Breeds Competency: Oil Industry Innovation Happening Before North Dakota’s Eyes – Remember that line:
Competition Breeds Competency
What is driving the rapid progress in shale drilling? Low prices which is the visible manifestation of competition. The competition is taking out some producers. Their assets, including land leases, will be taken over by stronger players and put in play at some time.
The competition is forcing the remaining players to get better, improve their productivity, drive down their costs, and increase their efficiency.
In other words, they are being forced to rapidly increase their competency. Again:
Competition Breeds Competency
Another big reason for me linking to Mr. Port’s article other than that superb one-liner? Check out the photo!
He has a Reuters photo of the 18 pump pad that Ms. Dalrymple mentioned in her article. There are two rows of 9 pumps. A masterful feat of engineering wizardry.
With my simpleton’s eyes, two observations come to mind. First, there are no storage tanks on the site. That means all the wells are tied directly to a gathering pipeline. There won’t be any trucks hauling oil away from the site – it all goes by pipeline.
Second, there is actually room for a few more wells. Seems to me there is room for another row of wells on the left side of the photo.
Check out the two photos. They are fantastic.