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Shale: Drilling and completing faster than ever before

Rig Lynx
  • By Rig Lynx
  • Apr 16, 2021
  • Category : Archives
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Much has been said about the recent improvements in the drilling and completion speed of tight oil and shale gas in the US. Standardization of operations and high grading of equipment are viewed as the two key factors pushing both the TMD footage drilled, and lateral footage completed per day higher almost every quarter. As of the first quarter, a typical US unconventional project is drilled at a speed of 1,300’ per day and fracked at 1,850’ per day. For comparison, both these numbers were generally in the 900-1,100’ range in 2017. We recently covered the increased adaption of simul-fracs in the completion process to specifically highlight the rise in fracking speeds. This data is now updated continuously, with every daily release of ShaleWellCube. In 2020, we identified 70 Permian wells that were completed using simul-frac techniques. In the first two months of 2021, we have already seen 62 simul-frac operations, based on well count, in the Permian. More importantly, testing simul-frac operations has becomes really widespread among larger operators. As many as six E&Ps completed their first ever Permian simul-frac project in January-February 2021. In comparison, seven newcomers were recorded in all of 2020.

 

Increased US onshore activity in recent months has been accompanied by some recovery in service pricing in the spot market across all segments. Many service companies and suppliers are on track to see a modest recovery in their margins in 2021, though they are also experiencing input cost inflation as prices of materials are increasing along with labor cost. E&Ps have generally budgeted a 5-15% service cost inflation for 2021, but we believe that continuous efficiency gains, along with the lag between the recovery in the spot market getting reflected in term contracts, will help the industry keep its average drilling and completion costs per foot at record-low levels in 2021. An average horizontal well is currently drilled and completed at a cost of around $700 per foot of lateral length.

 

Source: Rystad

 

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