Opportunities for horizontal drilling in Texas
Highly productive wells drilled in the Pearsall field (Austin Chalk) of South Texas have shown that horizontal drilling is an extremely effective technique for developing unrecovered oil and natural gas, particularly in mature hydrocarbon provinces that contain natural fractures. Production can also be enhanced where the reservoir-quality zone or the oil column is thin or where gravity-drainage production occurs. Although they are not current targets of horizontal drilling activity, many other kinds of reservoirs contain depositional heterogeneities that interfere with recovery by vertical wells. Use of horizontal drilling to tap multiple reservoir compartments in these reservoirs has significant potential but has yet to be fully tested. The resource target of unrecovered mobile oil in the nine Texas plays and subplays discussed in this report, amounting to more than 8 billion barrels of oil, warrants further testing of horizontal drilling in areas of depositional heterogeneities and multiple reservoir compartments. The authors summarize geological and engineering characteristics of selected formations in Texas that have been or are potential targets for horizontal drilling.
- OSTI ID:
- 6830711
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Drilling and completing a horizontal well in fractured carbonate
Horizontal exploitation of the Upper Cretaceous Austin Chalk of south Texas