Program cuts gas well drilling/completion costs
- Union Pacific Resources Co., Fort Worth, TX (United States)
- Halliburton Energy Services, Fort Worth, TX (United States)
A 2-year cost-reduction program cut East Texas gas-well drilling and completion costs by 37%. Union Pacific Resources (UPR) has implemented the lessons learned during this program in UPR branches in operating areas beyond its East Texas unit, where the company`s ``exploit marginal acreage team`` (EMAT) developed its cost-cutting practices. Impetus for organizing the EMAT was strong because well-development costs in the Cotton Valley (CV) formation in East Texas dictated that a gas well have a probability of producing more than 1.0 bcf gas during its lifetime. UPR held much acreage where wells potentially could only produce between 0.5 and 1.0 bcf; therefore, if UPR could drive costs down, these marginal areas would become economically exploitable. The UPR/Halliburton Energy Service alliance built mutual trust to the point that both sides realized that failure of an individual experiment would not reflect negatively on either side. In this atmosphere, more daring procedures were tried. Many of these are now part of UPR`s standard operating procedure for drilling and completing gas wells. The paper discusses the completion techniques retained, completion techniques under evaluation, completion techniques not retained, drilling techniques retained and not retained.
- OSTI ID:
- 253710
- Journal Information:
- Oil and Gas Journal, Vol. 94, Issue 27; Other Information: PBD: 1 Jul 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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