Jan. 24, 2019
In today’s market, the spread cost for drilling operations—rig time, fuel, field salaries, associated rentals and services equipment—can be anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 a day.
Now, imagine if gathering your formation evaluation data took hours, not days.
Jan. 17, 2019
It’s about going to great lengths for the drilling and completions industry. In this case, world-class lengths.
In late November, in the Wattenberg gas field near Boulder, Colorado, Cordax Evaluation Technologies logged a 23,960-foot (measured depth) well for a Denver-based client, Great Western Oil & Gas Company.
Jan. 8, 2018
Information is king. And in the upstream energy sector, data simply dominates.
Next week, at Calgary’s Fairmont Palliser Hotel, Cordax Evaluation Technologies and Crescent Point Energy Corp. will be making a joint presentation on a multi-well collaboration in Saskatchewan that was based on Cordax’s proprietary Logging While Tripping (LWT) technology.
Dec. 6, 2018
It’s a place of courage, hope and new beginnings. And it’s a place where lives get rebuilt, one step at a time.
The Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre cares for the most vulnerable members of our society, and works with a network of agencies to end chronic homelessness in Calgary.
Nov. 29, 2018
Reliable data. Minimal risk. Virtually no extra rig time.
Those were the findings of a recently released Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) paper on Cordax’s proprietary Logging While Tripping (LWT) technology, whose case study focused on two ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) Onshore wells in Abu Dhabi.
The team from Cordax LWT will be in attendance for the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference from July 20th-22nd 2015 in San Antonio, TX.
Drop in at Booth 527 to learn more about the advances in horizontal well logging and how cost effective Open-Hole logging has become using the Logging While Tripping technology.
Cordax will be exhibiting at the 2015 Annual Convention & Exhibition.
Location: Colorado Convention Center (Denver, CO)
Date: May 31 - June 3
Stop by the booth to learn about our unique deployment method, which ensure operational safety while optimize rig time to obtaining well logs.
Stop by Booth #108 at the 2015 GeoConvention to hear about cost effective and safe HZ well logging. Complete Stimulation Analysis in order to optimize completions and get the most out of every well.
Stop by Booth #108 at the 2015 GeoConvention to hear about cost effective and safe HZ well logging. Complete Stimulation Analysis in order to optimize completions and get the most out of every well.
The Shaunavon Formation is a stratigraphical unit deposited during the mid-Jurassic Era in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Taking the name from the town of Shaunavon in SW Saskatchewan, it was deposited during the Bathonian age and is approximately 168 million years in age. The 1st well was drilled in 1954 just SW of the town of Shaunavon, the origin of the formations name.
The Shaunavon is positioned below the Vanguard Group (more specifically the Rierdon Formation) and above the Gravelbourg Formations. Reaching a maximum thickness of approximately 48m the Shaunavon stretches into the Williston Basin in Montana and North Dakota as well as, blending into the shaley facies of the Melita Formation of Manitoba.
The Shaunavon Formation is composed of two members, an Upper and a Lower member. The Upper Shaunavon consists of a blend of calcareous sandstone, oolitic and argillaceous limestone, shell coquina and interbeds of gray and green shale.
The lower member consists of an oolitic bed overtop a buff microcrystalline limestone. Dolomitization, a process in which dolomite is formed when calcium ions in calcite are replaced by magnesium ions, has been found to occur in both the Upper and Lower Shaunavon members.
The complicated and heterogeneous succession of interbedded limestone, multi-colored shale and sandstone of the Shaunavon formations is clearly seen in logs. The Lower Shaunavon limestone displays the most prominent of identification characteristics.
Production Interest
Crescent Point had dominated the Shaunavon oil play in southwestern Saskatchewan, controlling as much as 90 per cent of the acreage in the play. But now has good competition after Surge Energy Inc. entered the play after buying assets from Cenovus Energy Inc. Initial interest was directed toward the Lower Shaunavon member, however emphasis had shifted by many companies to target the Upper member based on the favorable production recognized. As well, the opportunity for multi-zone production from both members has also been an incentive for companies targeting the formation.
Using horizontal drilling and multistage-fracturing completion techniques the Upper and Lower Shaunavon reservoirs can be exploited in a much more efficient way. Reservoir investigation using horizontal well evaluations has been shown to improve frac stage effectiveness by targeting specific intervals of the lateral section that are most ideal for frac stimulation. Other sections of the wellbore that are not as ideal (frac energy is not absorbed well) can be avoided, thus reducing the occurrence of wasted/inefficient frac stages.
With Cordax's Logging While Tripping (LWT) system, horizontal open hole logs can be obtained safely, while significantly reducing rig time typically associated with conventional logging operations.
The Niobrara was deposited during a period of large variations in sea level, in the in the middle of North America during late Cretaceous Age (145.5 – 65.5 million years ago). With a descending Western Interior Seaway crust, a major marine transgression occurred and created conditions ideal for carbonate deposition.
Much of the Niobrara exploration activity has been guided by resistivity mapping. In general, higher resistivity correlates with higher maturity and better production. It has been identified that resistivity is typically low in thermally immature regions of the Niobrara. Resistivity gradually increases with increased maturity, as the production progressively moves from the oil window into the wet-gas window. However, when referring to increasing maturity of wet-gas to dry-gas window, this trend reverses. Recent studies have indicated that the best explanation for this process of decreasing resistivity with higher thermal maturity is likely due to changes in wettability combined with development of petroleum-discharge fractures.
The process is as follows:
Low maturity Niobrara is water-wet and therefore has low resistivity.
In the oil-generation window, organic compounds and water are competing to coat grain surfaces and eventually the rock changes from water-wet to oil-wet, causing a substantial increase in resistivity.
Further on, hydrcarbons (solid and liquid) go through a process known as “Thermal Cracking” and are converted to gas. Essentially, as these organic compounds (resins and asphaltenes) are consumed the oil-wetting behavior is reversed, thus releasing grain surfaces to be rewetted by connate water. The conductive water phase presence is re-established, resulting in resistivity decreases.
The figure below shows a regional map of maximum resistivities in the Niobrara. Resistivities are low (<10 ohm-m) in the shallow eastern part of the basin and increase westward into the deeper part of the basin. The trend of increasing resistivity with increasing maturity is reversed in the area of Wattenberg field where the Niobrara maturity is highest. This area is indicated on by the 20,000 GOR contour.
The Niobrara has had completions operations performed since the early 1980’s. By 2009, the introduction of horizontal drilling and multi-stage frac intervals had identified a viable individual target area in the Niobrara chalks. Certain companies have utilized completion designs that were driven from their earlier experiences in Bakken field operations.
D-J Basin - Active horizontal drilling continues to present day, with about 50 rigs running in early 2014.
The Niobrara Formation originated in the middle of North America during late Cretaceous Age (145.5 – 65.5 million years ago). Deposited in what’s known as the “Western Interior Seaway”, the Niobrara Formation is also known as the Niobrara Shale. The Niobrara was deposited during a period of large fluctuations in sea level. With a descending Western Interior Seaway crust, a major marine transgression occurred and created conditions ideal for carbonate deposition.
Available land positions are being snapped up by several companies, all trying to get a piece of the action. Improvements in the engineering and geological understanding of the Niobrara will likely result in segregation of specific regional areas for companies to focus on exploitation.
The Niobrara formation consists of a widespread deposit of interbedded marine chalk, limestone and organic rich shale. Primary lithology in the eastern part of the seaway is chalk and limestone. The interbedded chalk is characterized as brittle and often naturally fractured. Due to this brittle nature, even small structural features can add significant fractured enhancement to permeability.
The Niobrara is a self-sourced hydrocarbon system and estimates of total organic carbon content in the range from 1% to 7%. Oil experiences only local migration, and the play boundary is outlined by a region of thermal maturity. Oil production has come mostly from vertical wells in the deeper (depths of 6,000 to 9,000+ feet), more mature portions of the Denver-Julesburg (DJ), North Park and Powder River basins. Average porosity is typically less than 10% with permeability less than 0.01millidarcy.
The chart depicts the economics of a Wattenberg horizontal well (Wattenberg is a field commonly associated with Niobrara exploration). This illustrates that the more invested in these wells has yielded higher rates of return on invested capital. Primary reasoning behind these higher yields is due to more more-effective completion design, extended lateral sections of wells, and enhanced drilling methods translating into improved rigtime efficiency. The play is mainly being exploited using horizontal drilling, with reported lateral lengths of 3,500 to 5,500 feet, and multistage fracture stimulations with well costs of $3 to $6 million.
Advancements in drilling and completion techniques have led to renewed interest in the Niobrara oil play in the Rockies. Although the reservoir has been productive for more than a century, numerous companies have established large acreage positions in the prospective trend. Using horizontal drilling and multistage-fracturing completion techniques, these companies are all hoping to take advantage of this relatively low-permeability oil reservoir. Although few well results have been made available, due to the early stages of the play development, those that have been released have been encouraging.
Further investigation into improvements of multi-stage fracture completions by way of horizontal well evaluations and better frac placement, is sure to continue the excellent returns being produced from the Niobrara. With Cordax's Logging While Tripping (LWT) system, horizontal open hole logs can be obtained safely, while significantly reducing rig time typically associated with conventional logging operations.
For many of the active plays in both Canada and the United States the idea of “blind geometric fracturing” is vastly being dominated with the link between Open Hole data and Engineered Completion Stimulation. The advanced completion stimulation design entails optimizing fracture stages as well as corrects positioning of perforation clusters to provide the maximum production well-well.
Whitepapers such as the SPE 166242, which provides a detailed look into completion optimization of the Eagle Ford using Horizontal Log Data, shows:
Proven results indicating the need for theses advancements
Operating costs have been decreased to efficiently drill these wells, but some adjustments are necessary to the current completions techniques
Average production from the shale formation has remained flat over the past 5 years, even with the variation of completions techniques
Less than 64% of perforation clusters are contributing to the total well production
Approx. 30% of perforation clusters do not appear to contribute in unconventional plays across North America using multistage completions
Results of SPE 166242:
The addition of low risk, low cost Petrophysical Analysis by grouping similarly stressed rock for treatment
Perforation Efficiency increased from 64% to 82%. 18% more perforation clusters contributing to well production
Datalog Logging While Tripping provides Open Hole Data in order to perform an Engineering Completions Stimulation as shown in SPE 166242.
Datalog LWT is exhibiting at the URTeC conference in Denver, August 25-27.
Great conference with a good cross section of professionals from the SPE, AAPG & SEG.
A great event for resource teams.
Drop by and meet the team at booth 1031.
In previous topics we have covered the Montney formation in two parts: Introduction & A Closer Look. A younger formation, above the Montney, known as Charlie Lake has been slowly showing up on the radar of many companies currently active in the Montney.
Recent discoveries of the Worsley Member cap rock in Alberta, providing containment for the reservoir, has allowed an opening for more economic horizontal drilling in these locations. The formation has mixed oil percentages ranging anywhere from 20% up to 80% depending on the region.
Current activity in Charlie Lake, with an average well drilling and completion cost of $3.6 million per well:
Tourmaline Oil Corp.
3 Rigs at Peace River (reserves estimated at 24.75 million BOE)
Controls 75% of currently mapped Charlie Lake reserves
35 wells drilled in 2013 – 45 planned for 2014
Birchcliff Energy Ltd.
Reserves estimated at 15.1 million BOE
Artek Exploration
2 wells drilled to date into Charlie Lake
The sandstone/siltstone reservoir rock is bound firmly by anhydrite, a dense evaporite material. The dense anhydrite requires new technologies such as horizontal drilling and fracture techniques to provide strong production/recovery results from Charlie Lake.
Being that the Charlie Lake formation is a lesser developed formation, extra well information to compare On-Site Geology cuttings is vital to the growing knowledge for current Operators. Horizontal well logging, such as Cordax's Logging While Tripping system, provides open hole logging data throughout the entire horizontal leg, helping Operators book reserves and select correct stimulation methods to optimize well to well production.
We provide innovative formation evaluation solutions to the global petroleum industry using our proprietary Logging While Tripping (LWT) method. Combined with the Zone Grader and Zone Tuner interpretation analysis, Cordax helps you make the right decisions for your well.
See how Cordax can improve your operations and save you money by giving us a call or, sending a quick email. A team of experts are waiting to help you optimize the producibility of your resource.
