Refracks

The Bakken Shale underlying North Dakota and parts of Montana could be the last oil and gas production zone where child wells are increasing output from parent wells, said James West, senior managing director of research at Evercore ISI.

A bullish picture of Bakken Shale development driven by technology advances and innovation was laid out this month at the annual meeting of the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC) in Grand Forks.

As it continues pushing its lateral lengths this year, Ohio pure-play Eclipse Resources Corp. intends to drill two Marcellus Shale wells in eastern Monroe County and gather more data from a refractured (refracked) Utica Shale well that could open new horizons for the company this year.

As the “lower for longer” commodity price environment drags on, producers will increasingly return to previously drilled horizontal wells, refracture them and bank the lower-cost returns, according to a new study of well refracturing in the Haynesville Shale.

Recompleting existing horizontal wells in the U.S. onshore remains in the nascent stages, but as technology improves, the practice is capturing the attention, and money, of a few select prospectors.

Recompleting existing horizontal wells in the U.S. onshore remains in the nascent stages, but as technology improves, the practice is capturing…