mmasters wrote:Curious to know how mature is the technology being used on shale and other unconventional plays. Will we see further advancement in this sector open up more oil at a lower cost? Or has the technology in this area already matured?
Most changes are small, and involves progressive, incremental changes in the way the drilling and fracking is done, rather then any new technology. For instance, most companies are now drilling longer horizontal wells and then using bigger more powerful pumps to do bigger fracks with more sand then in the past. That results in a bigger zone of fracked shale around the well and more production and better ROI.
Another slight change is drilling two or more long horizontal wells, one just above the other, and then fracking both of them. This is called "stacked fracking" and results in a bigger zone of fractured rock and again results in more oil production and better ROI.
A similar new technique is called "stacked laterals, and involves drilling two or three or even more wells side by side, and then fracking all of them. Again, this results in a bigger zone of fractured rock and again results in more oil production and better ROI.
And, of course, sometimes they combine stacked laterals and stacked fracking at one drill site. The idea is to get all the oil out of the shale and not leave any "unfracked" zones behind.
2-new-drilling-techniques-that-will-shatter-us-oil-expectationsCheers!