well

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.

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.