Author Topic: Dakota - Bakken Crude Oil Production Growth Spurs Gathering System Development  (Read 1107 times)

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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Crude oil production in the Bakken Shale, which slumped after the 2014-15 crash in oil prices, has increased by more than 50% in the past three years, and now tops 1.5 MMb/d. Just as important, producers in the core of the crude-focused play in western North Dakota have been ratcheting down their drilling-and-completion costs and making plans for continued production growth in 2020. Also, midstreamers are addressing a gas processing capacity shortfall that had threatened to slow drilling activity; in addition, some of them are developing crude oil takeaway capacity, including the planned Liberty Pipeline to the crude hub in Cushing, OK. Today, we begin a series on the Bakken’s expanding network of smaller-diameter crude pipelines and their role in further improving the shale play’s economics.

It seems like eons ago, but the Bakken was one the first shale plays in the U.S. to demonstrate the promise and potential of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the production of crude oil. As shown by the green area and left axis in Figure 1, between the beginning of 2010 and the end of 2014, Bakken crude production rocketed from ~250 Mb/d to ~1.26 MMb/d, a gain of more than 400%. But the mid-decade collapse in oil prices hit the Bakken hard. By December 2016, crude production there had bottomed out at less than 960 Mb/d, and the number of active rigs in the play (yellow line and right axis) had plummeted to 32, from 182 rigs two years earlier.

https://rbnenergy.com/dakota-bakken-crude-production-growth-spurs-gathering-system-development
What I still consider the best true shale play anywhere, the Bakken continues to dazzle, now setting production records even at low rig counts.
What are you smoking up there @Smokin Joe ?
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Offline Smokin Joe

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What I still consider the best true shale play anywhere, the Bakken continues to dazzle, now setting production records even at low rig counts.
What are you smoking up there @Smokin Joe ?
It is a refinement of technique. When I started working Bakken wells (Elm Coulee Field, MT, 2000) we drilled a single lateral in a single section spacing, with kelly rigs, 30 ft. connections, and there was still a lot of experimenting going on. That first Bakken lateral I worked in Elm Coulee Field (about 4000 ft. in zone) took over a month to move the rig in, set up and drill to Total Depth. Moving that rig to another well was a two week procedure of dismantling, trucking, and reassembly on a new site.
We graduated in short order to multilateral wells, with sidetracks out of windows cut in the cased curved hole or drilled from (and coplanar to) the first lateral from open hole to better drain the lease, but all from the same vertical wellbore.
Still, the winds of change (like the wind in North Dakota) continued to blow.
By 2010, pipelines were near or at capacity, and rail terminals were built to haul crude oil in unit trains of tanker cars to refineries.
Other pipelines, notably the Keystone XL, and the DAPL were in the works.
Enter the multi well pad and 'walking' rigs.  By 2012-13, we were drilling multiple wells from one surface pad. Some of the later top drive rigs were fitted with means to move the derrick and substructure from one wellhead to another, in a line on the pad. Some walked on pads like the GEMs of the eastern coalfields, some rolled on rails or similar tracks. The time previously involved in rig moves was cut by removing the need to disassemble the rig for each succeeding well, instead drilling as many as four or more wells just by moving the derrick and substructure, a process that could be completed in a couple of days (then), and only dismantling the rig to move it to another row of wells on the pad or to another pad.
The pad concept, drilling multiple horoizontal wells, sometimes in different directions from a single surface location, also enabled the concentration of production equipment for multiple wells on a single location, and simplified the running of feeder pipelines for oil and natural (wellhead) gas, to transport those to either trucking or rail terminals or gas processing plants.
Infrastructure followed, with the construction of gas processing plants and pipelines.

Now? We drill laterals that are up to 18,000 ft. in zone, instead of the early 4500 ft., using rigs which can move from wellhead to wellhead on the pad in under 24 hours, and move from row of wellheads to another row of wellheads on that same pad in a matter of three to four days and be drilling again. The more ordinary 9500-14000 ft. lateral is drilled in less time than those early 4500 ft. laterals due to top drive rigs, better mud motors, 90 (actually ~95) ft. connections, better steering methods, and much more reliable and high performance mud motors, bits, and MWD tools. Wells on the pad are set up in advance, with surface hole drilled and casing set by a rig that does just that, and is moved off to another location before the rig which drills the laterals is moved in.
Geological sample intervals have been extended, no longer ten feet or thirty feet, but up to 200 ft. in the horizontal wellbore, which leaves more time for geologists to geosteer the well, now using software we only dreamed of when we were inventing excel spreadsheets and graphics to do the job twenty years ago. 

Similarly, frac techniques have also evolved, from the early single stage frac in open hole (casing was only run to the target zone, then, and the whole lateral wellbore hydraulically fractured at once) to multistage fracs from cased hole, where each separately fractured interval gets the benefit of that treatment rather than just the paths of less resistance in a much longer bore. The result is more oil from the same amount of reservoir, all else equal, because the ability of that oil to get to the wellbore is far better enhanced by fracturing those smaller intervals one at a time.

Even the drilling rigs have changed, aside from the ability to move the substructure and derrick (with the drill string racked back) from wellhead to wellhead. Much of the pipe handling process is automated, pipe spinners have replaced spinning chains, and virtually everything is computerized. While this does have vulnerabilities (one rig I worked on was struck by lightning, and it took two days to sort out the hardware and software issues caused by that lightning strike), it greatly enhances the speed and safety of the operation.
"Worm's Corner", a corner formed by the drive chain housing of the rotary table and the face of the draw works, where I and thousands of others broke out in the patch, operating one of the large (400 lb+) tongs that were used to make up or break out the drill pipe, no longer exists on these rigs.

Even before this boom, pre-employment drug screening and random testing had removed a more accident prone group from the workforce, Company safety programs, training programs, and even State run training programs ensure a better educated employee, and the overall quality and professionalism of rig crews has improved along with safety in general: working as a roughneck is no longer in the top ten most dangerous jobs.

So, streamlined processes, less nonproductive time, technical advancements, ever more competent personnel, improvements in completion techniques, and the concerted efforts of thousands of professionals from design labs to the field all come together to produce something about which we can unabashedly say "We built this."

With one of the bottlenecks to progress having been transportation infrastructure, and the previous administration's efforts to stymie that development, I must give credit to President Trump for peeling aside much of the curtain of unnecessary and redundant red tape imposed at the Federal Level and doing best what Government does best when something is to be accomplished--getting it out of the way.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline thackney

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It is a refinement of technique....

Thank you for sharing that.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Thank you for sharing that.
You're welcome! It has been one heck of a ride!
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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It is a refinement of technique.
And that is 'The Learning Curve' encapsulated within a few paragraphs which those professionals within the oil industry earn their typically high compensation.

I will add one thing: you did not mention much on geology.  In my mind, the geological characteristics of the Bakken are far more conducive to the way these enhancements make such as longer laterals and improved geosteering than any other play I have seen.

Most people do not realize one is steering a bit two miles beneath the earth for another 2 to +3 miles in an almost horizontal dipping bed in which faults of a few feet are encountered frequently, and amazingly staying within at times a foot or two of the target zone.  This is not done with any camera 'seeing the rock' ahead of the bit.  It is done for the most part with some relatively rough seismic and a geologist with a keen sense of using the rock already drilled to predict what will come ahead of the bit.

And the rock is drilled very fast as rigtime is money so staying on top of it is a monumental task.

The Geosteering alone is an extraordinary technological achievement, and I have witnessed a geologist like @Smokin Joe stay up all night long fighting the prognosis vs actual drill foot by foot to make it happen.

The Permian, for example, is not nearly as layered with the continuous brittle fraccable zones as is the Bakken/Three Forks.

Geological differences is one reason I am not high on Williston results being made in the Permian.

There just isn't any rock found anywhere as good for an unconventional play as exists in the Williston.
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Online Lando Lincoln

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Fascinating stuff guys.  Thank you.
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Offline truth_seeker

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In the 60s and 70s we did high pressure "washes" of both onshore and offshoe wells for injection projects.


SignalOil & Gas. Co. Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Platforms still operating, after now, after  over 50 years.
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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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In the 60s and 70s we did high pressure "washes" of both onshore and offshoe wells for injection projects.


SignalOil & Gas. Co. Long Beach and Huntington Beach. Platforms still operating, after now, after  over 50 years.
Am not acquainted with what constitutes a 'high pressure wash'.

I likely know it as something else.

Can you describe objective and procedure? @truth_seeker
« Last Edit: February 19, 2020, 12:29:29 am by IsailedawayfromFR »
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Fascinating stuff guys.  Thank you.
appreciate the comments.

If you are indeed from Illinois, know there exists some extraordinary oil accumulations in the Southern part of state.

I knew about the Salem oilfield when I cut my teeth in the early 70s.  It was so absurdly uniform that the company I worked for that operated it (Texaco) did every conceivable project to enhance its production.  It was a beautiful research test case field by to prove new processes that could be adopted by other fields in the world.
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Offline truth_seeker

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Am not acquainted with what constitutes a 'high pressure wash'.

I likely know it as something else.

Can you describe objective and procedure? @truth_seeker

Okay, it involved a "wash" tool, with cups  facing up-hole, and facing down-hole spaced  apart. about six feet.

the  tool is run down to the perferated zone of the production casing, the cups seal off inside the casing, forcing fluid under high presure, through the perfs, into the first few feet of the production zone.

This was long zgo, but it seems like an earlier version, of fracturing the production zone around the welbore.

Specialized chemicals were mixed with fresh water.

"God must love the common man, he made so many of them.�  Abe Lincoln

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Okay, it involved a "wash" tool, with cups  facing up-hole, and facing down-hole spaced  apart. about six feet.

the  tool is run down to the perferated zone of the production casing, the cups seal off inside the casing, forcing fluid under high presure, through the perfs, into the first few feet of the production zone.

This was long zgo, but it seems like an earlier version, of fracturing the production zone around the welbore.

Specialized chemicals were mixed with fresh water.
Oh yeah, that is washing out the perfs in my venacular.

I don't believe the formation was actually fractured, but simply to get past the skin damage around the well that came about with drilling and completion fluids.

The earliest true fracturing I recall hearing about was in the 50s before hydraulic fracturing was taking off. 

Actually involved lowering nitroglycerin down the wellbore (how would like to have had that job?)and setting it off across from the perfs.

Spectacularly unsuccessful.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline Smokin Joe

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Oh yeah, that is washing out the perfs in my venacular.

I don't believe the formation was actually fractured, but simply to get past the skin damage around the well that came about with drilling and completion fluids.

The earliest true fracturing I recall hearing about was in the 50s before hydraulic fracturing was taking off. 

Actually involved lowering nitroglycerin down the wellbore (how would like to have had that job?)and setting it off across from the perfs.

Spectacularly unsuccessful.
Well, that's what has come to be known as 'making dents in the learning curve'.

I worked my first horizontal well in 1990, and the experimentation from there was great to be a part of. We changed drilling fluids, we tried drilling underbalanced, and often found the solutions to our problems were simpler, rather than more complex. We found a few things that just did not work as well as others (and didn't use those again). We drilled laterals from windows cut in old production casing, we drilled the one, two, and three lateral wells in one and two section spacings from a single wellbore.
We left open hole in the pay on the early wells, only running casing down to the pay zone, until a frac pumper went down in the middle of a frac and collapsed an entire lateral. After that, all the pay zones got liners.
We had a rig go ahead of ours and drill the vertical wellbore and case it, and then came in with a modified workover rig and tubing to drill short radius laterals (before the Bakken, in the Ratcliffe). Then came dedicated, single wellbore locations for drilling longer laterals, with larger rigs, drilled from spud to Total Depth with the same big rig. Then top drives, and drilling a stand (~95 ft., three joints of drill pipe [a 'joint' is roughly 31 ft.] pre-connected), so that eliminated two connections and the delay involved in making them, as well as the disruption of pulling tools off bottom while doing so, which enabled better steering from a drilling standpoint.
Then the walking rigs on well pads where multiple wells could be drilled from the same location, often parallel to each other down the lease. All this time mud motors, MWD tools, battery technology, drill bits were being refined, performing better, longer, drilling faster.
But every innovation or attempt to make one resulted in something learned, either a new way to do things or a way not to.

Now, drilling is honed to an art form. On that first well, we were thrilled to make 500 ft. in a day. Now, we can drill 500 ft. an hour in the pay, often held back just by the ability to clear the cuttings from the hole fast enough to prevent problems.

Steering once was done by comparing the strung out markers on the gamma ray log in the lateral wellbore with the true vertical depth log (of a vertical wellbore or the one we were drilling) by eye--always 40+ feet behind the bit, and by subtle changes, often misleading, in the rock itself, obtained an hour after it was drilled (transit time to the surface). Paper copies were hand delivered, then floppy disks, then thumb drives, now e-mail, which is safer than networking computers from a slew of different sources.
Now we can compare our current place in the well with those offset wells, vertical logs, and even our own well path to see where we are by using software tailored for the job, far better than the primitive spreadsheet graphs we used early on.

In reality, with that, the job has gotten easier, at least until mother nature throws a monkey wrench into the works with a fault or sharp change in formation dip.

From a geological standpoint: The Bakken is a dream, as is the Three Forks. Not that they don't have their quirks, but for the most part the formations are continuous, even if the lithology varies. I have seen everything from fine sand to pelletal limestone in the Middle Bakken, with a lot of dolomite in between. Markers, layers to navigate by, may or may not be present, depending on where you are, and I have steered a couple of wells by first going over the vertical wells in the field, triangulating multiple cross sections across the field and the planned well path, and going almost entirely by the numbers. It worked.

The Three Forks is a more consistent assemblage of rock types, dolomite and fine sand/silt with sometimes laterally discontinuous shale beds, which may or may not be usable as markers for navigation purposes. Both formations have been known to give responses to steering attempts which can be misleading, and again, it is back to using the gamma ray data for the final decisions on steering.
That said, the pay horizons seem more continuous, less partitioned than in the Permian well I ran Mass Spec on, and I would love to run mass spec continuously on mud gasses in the Bakken and Three Forks to test that. That tool enables the identification of impermeable reservoir boundaries, and the data might be of value in tailoring frac treatments. But I don't make those decisions, what we are doing is producing a lot of oil, and in the spirit of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", I doubt any company is going to be in a rush to spend the extra money to acquire that sort of data, especially in a depressed oil market.

So, not to be holding out. After all, geology and geosteering are what I do when working close to home.

But, yes, I can think of another unconventional resource which may prove as consistent as the Bakken, as yet untapped to my knowledge, and as such, unproven. From what i have seen of that one, the hydrocarbon fluorescence in samples, the production would be skewed toward condensate and gas/NGLs.   (Before I disclose that one, though, I want a very small percentage override, or a compensation package that would ensure a significantly more comfortable retirement.)
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis