horizontal drilling

The oil and gas industry is always working to develop the most efficient methods for unlocking more hydrocarbons. To cut costs and maximize output from their acreage, some companies are rolling out more creative well designs, such as U-turn (aka “horseshoe”) and J-hook wells, which use dramatic, 180-degree underground turns to access more oil and gas from each location. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss the benefits of these approaches and the technical hurdles associated with drilling these deep bends underground. 

Oil and gas production in the Shale Era is a refined, controlled process — and a far cry from the early days of wildcatting a century ago. Modern drilling typically involves multiple wells on a single well pad, with each well going through a four-stage process to produce hydrocarbons that are then separated into distinct components. In today’s RBN blog, we look at how drilling-and-completion techniques have evolved over the years, from old-school vertical wells to the highly complex strategies targeting shale areas today, and how they set the stage for hydrocarbon production and recovery.

A number of indicators suggest that the energy slump that started in the latter half of 2014 has bottomed out, and that happy days are here again (at least for now).  Who would have thought back in the good ol’ days three years ago this month—when the spot price for crude oil was north of $100/bbl and the Henry Hub natural gas price averaged $5.15/MMbtu—that Friday’s $54 crude and $2.63 gas would be seen as anything but a catastrophic meltdown. But not so. The fact is that in 2017, producers in a number of basins can make good money at these price levels.  Consequently, drilling activity is coming on strong. Crude oil production is up more than 500 Mb/d since October 2016 to 9 MMb/d, a level not seen in almost a year. And gas output has also been poised to rise, if only real winter demand had kicked in this year. What’s going on? Today we discuss the fact that what we have here, folks, is a rebound unlike any we’ve seen before.

Estimates of how much oil or natural gas are “technically” or “economically” recoverable are moving targets. Until just a few years ago, the hydrocarbon-producing potential of the Bakken, the Permian and the Marcellus were vastly underestimated—hardly anyone would have wagered in 1995 that North Dakota, West Texas and northeastern Pennsylvania would emerge as oil and gas hotspots. So what are we to make of California’s Monterey tight oil play, which as recently as 2011 was hailed as the next big thing for tight-oil production, but which is now on just about no one’s mind? Today, we consider what it might take to turn a hydrocarbon frog into a prince.

One of the most exploited oil plays in history, the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico has recently become ground zero for some of the most exciting new “unconventional” oil and gas development in North America. Horizontal drilling and vastly improved completion techniques have vaulted the Permian once again to the fastest-growing oil and gas production region of the U.S.  In today’s Permian-focused blog, we review key conclusions from RBN Energy’s latest “Drill Down” Report and Production Economics Model.

Shale production has transformed the economics of oil and gas production in the U.S. and is creating an era of lower cost energy. Yet drilling and completion costs are typically far higher for shale wells than they are for conventional drilling. Higher initial production and ultimate well recovery rates contribute to better economics for these unconventional wells.  To understand how this works we need to get into the details of shale production costs and revenues. That is the objective of this series.  Today we continue our rundown of shale production financial return calculations.

The shale gas revolution has transformed the economics of oil and gas production in the U.S. and  its effects have been far reaching ,including reduced dependence on imported oil and gas  supplies and strengthening domestic manufacturing through lower energy costs. Much of the credit for the technological innovation that allowed this revolution to take place is owed to the late George Mitchell (1919 – 2013) and the members of the Mitchell Energy shale gas team who persevered with the technology. Today we begin a series describing the technology and economics behind the shale drilling boom.

Over the past five years exploitation of abundant gas and oil bearing shale basin formations by combining and augmenting two long-standing technologies has revolutionized North American energy markets. If you are at all involved in the energy industry you know that these technologies – horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing - are bigger than Bieber right now. Maybe bigger than Taylor Swift. Today we explain how they work and why they are so important.