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Exploration and Production (E&P) Technology in the
Upstream Oil and Gas Industry
Complex Well
Geometries
Using horizontal wells to maximize recovery in
everything from shale gas/light, tight oils; to deep water fields; to oil sand
SAGD production
- Horizontal drilling, which emerged as a regular E&P tool in the
early 1990's, is being extended into ever more complex well geometries
as drilling technology improves and costs come down.
- Horizontal wellbores and variants access more of the producing
formation, leading to higher rates, greater recoveries, and lower costs.
- Horizontal wells are a key enabling technology, along with hydraulic
fracturing, in extracting natural gas from shales such as the Marcellus, Bakken, Eagle Ford and Utica plays.
- More challenging horizontal well applications are leading the
upstream industry to invest in new, bigger, more automated,
easier-to-move rigs with attributes such as:
- AC electric systems
- Top drives
- Integrated drilling control systems, including development of
inexpensive, reliable, real time MWD/RSS
- "Walking" rig systems to maximize benefits of pad drilling.
- New drilling technologies, such as coiled tubing drilling, continue
to mature and emerge.