When in the context of a horizontal well and the investments made throughout the start to finishing process, saving any amount of rig time will instantly decrease the bottom line costs. As a VP of Exploration, horizontal drilling is a huge investment with many risks, so why not look for getting the most bang for your buck during the operation.
Most horizontal drilling operations, during the timeline of spud to completion tend to:
Cause your company nuisances with the rig time they consume
Are attached with what seems to be an inflated costs to get to the production stage
A few points to consider
If the option to get a logging waiver from the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) arises, most companies might think this is a huge incentive and will end up saving them money, but
A geologist can take the guess work out of future growth opportunities for your next horizontal well
A geologist can verify if he has gotten actual cuttings from the drilling operation and not caving from formations higher up
Fracture stages can be minimized
Fracturing in an unrecognized fault may cause a term called “watering out your hole”, which will reduce the production amount of hydrocarbons
For the fracking process alone, each stage is a costly process at $80,000 a pop. With placing a dollar figure on only one aspect of the completions operation we can see how these costly processes can be a waste if that area of the formation turned out to be toed in or out of the required fracture formation. In addition to fracking into a fault, which was described earlier as “watering out your hole”, this could very well be the answer to why some wells are producing more or less hydrocarbons even though they are drilling through the same formation.
How to use formation evaluation data to your benefit:
Formation evaluation may very well end up saving you bottom line costs in the long run by:
Optimizing the completion stages of your well
Providing accurate data for the geologists for future growth opportunities in that same formation or field
Bottom line: Formation evaluation typically costs less than one frack stage alone; see for yourself with a formation evaluation quote.
