For quite sometime, I have speculated that the vast, underground 'grid' of 5,000 foot/10,000 foot long wellbores may ultimately be utilized in some fashion to capture FAR more than the original 3 to 5 % of the OOIP that early wells have recovered Looking at the profile of #22617, some outlines of what may be happening seem plausible, but still unverified.The post on which the reader was commenting:
Specifically, that 30 stage #22617 well is almost definitely a sliding sleeve completion (as were just about all Continental's early wells).
In addition to 're-pressurizing' the well to inhibit sand intrusuin from new, nearby fracs, some additional protective steps may have also been implemented. (A Canadian outfit used closable sleeves years ago. I do not know if this well has that type).
Whatever preparatory steps for this well were used, it is plausible to think that nearby fracs 'encroached', aka created way more NEW fractures coming from either side (from the 2 new adjacent wells on either side) right up to - or very close to - the original #22617 wellbore.
The new wells are both creating and MAINTAINING very high pressure 'bubbles' underground with the now near-ubiquitous Extreme Limited Entry perforation technique.
These high pressure 'bubbles' are opening the ALREADY EXISTING fractures that pre-exist in ALL shale plays, and emplacing the small, 100 mesh proppant to keep the fracs open. (Only about 10% of the formation has been stimulated in most every completion up to the 2016 timeframe).
Then, maintaining the now highly charged pressure form the frac (witness the 6 month, controlled drawdown numbers of both oil and produced water output), higher pressure and WAY more stimulated/propped rock are contributing to the 'old' well's new production.
Essentially, the latest iterations of completions are being retroactively applied to older wells by simply shutting them down/protecting (somehow) from proppant intrusion, stimulating WAY more rock from either side ... right up to/near the older wellbore, and then maintaining the new, higher underground pressure to drive the now-extensive frac network to recover/produce way more of the original, in place, hydrocarbons.
Jump in production from 2,000 bbls/month to 16,497 bbls/month; no re-frack according to FracFocus or NDIC file report.
The well:
- 22617, 448, CLR, Sorenson 1-21AH, 30 stages; 2.8 million lbs, Alkali Creek, t2/13; cum 343K 2/20;
Graphics: also at the Sorenson link above --
Recent production:
| Pool | Date | Days | BBLS Oil | Runs | BBLS Water | MCF Prod | MCF Sold | Vent/Flare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAKKEN | 2-2020 | 29 | 4807 | 4639 | 4303 | 10505 | 10054 | 70 |
| BAKKEN | 1-2020 | 30 | 5610 | 5881 | 5170 | 10790 | 10199 | 200 |
| BAKKEN | 12-2019 | 30 | 8957 | 8748 | 7803 | 12961 | 10484 | 2087 |
| BAKKEN | 11-2019 | 30 | 13843 | 13691 | 11727 | 22121 | 10469 | 11256 |
| BAKKEN | 10-2019 | 23 | 9004 | 9390 | 7757 | 13695 | 3416 | 9994 |
| BAKKEN | 9-2019 | 30 | 14137 | 14169 | 13728 | 21180 | 1238 | 19537 |
| BAKKEN | 8-2019 | 31 | 15074 | 15068 | 14915 | 22636 | 3357 | 18860 |
| BAKKEN | 7-2019 | 31 | 14404 | 14436 | 13814 | 19228 | 806 | 18009 |
| BAKKEN | 6-2019 | 30 | 14552 | 14651 | 15758 | 16402 | 1313 | 14685 |
| BAKKEN | 5-2019 | 31 | 16497 | 15923 | 13543 | 18057 | 6233 | 11405 |
| BAKKEN | 4-2019 | 6 | 1256 | 1276 | 496 | 54 | 0 | 0 |
| BAKKEN | 3-2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BAKKEN | 2-2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BAKKEN | 1-2019 | 16 | 897 | 945 | 336 | 1987 | 1771 | 0 |
| BAKKEN | 12-2018 | 31 | 1886 | 1966 | 778 | 3961 | 3234 | 310 |
| BAKKEN | 11-2018 | 30 | 1811 | 1812 | 696 | 3473 | 2927 | 141 |
| BAKKEN | 10-2018 | 31 | 1930 | 1882 | 793 | 3673 | 2664 | 590 |
