--> Benchmarking Well Performance for Variable Geology and Engineering in the Utica/Point Pleasant Play

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Benchmarking Well Performance for Variable Geology and Engineering in the Utica/Point Pleasant Play

Abstract

Approaching its first thousand horizontal wells, the Utica/Point Pleasant play in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania is a newcomer to the "unconventional club". While the Ohio oil and gas industry has a long history, the Utica and deeper Point Pleasant formations have only recently emerged as economically viable transitional gas-to-liquids targets. While these Ordivician-aged rocks do not have an exact analogue in any other North American unconventional play, many of the learnings from transitional phase plays like the Eagle Ford have provided general blueprints for effective field development. Depth, thickness and geochemistry maps provide valuable insights into the west-east transition of the basin from liquids-rich to dry gas, near and beyond the Pennsylvania border. Rock cuttings and log data provide insights into the porosity and permeability characteristics of the Utica, Point Pleasant and Marcellus, the latter largely shallowing to uneconomic depths in the area of this study. Sufficient well coverage is in place to correlate geologic measurements with fluid phase maps of gas-oil ratio and breakdown pressures measured during hydraulic fracturing. In combination, analytic characterization of geologic and fluid maps provide valuable insights into relative sweetspots and emerging opportunities in southern Ohio and in West Virginia. As in other unconventional plays, extensive experimentation is underway to "right-size" drilling and completions for variable rock and fluid characteristics. Starting 50% higher than the Eagle Ford historic average, Utica and Point Pleasant completions are placing an average of 6.5 million pounds of sand, with individual wells ranging beyond 17 million pounds. Fluid volumes are comparable to the Eagle Ford, at an average of 100,000 barrels. Horizontal well lengths generally fall between 4000 and 7000 feet, but do extend up to 9000 feet. Analytic studies of gas and liquids production in the Utica and Point Pleasant play indicate that the geology and fluid mix are amenable to "high-intensity" fracing. Normalized to horizontal lengths, Eagle-Ford like frac jobs of 1000–2000 pounds per foot of sand and 20–40 barrels per foot correlate to the best producing wells to date. Recent drilling results are also bearing out geologic prospectivity further south than the initial "core area" of east-central Ohio.