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• 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 Barnett, Marcellus, and Haynesville shale plays

• More challenging horizontal well applications is leading the upstream industry to invest in new, bigger, more automated, easier to move rigs

• AC electric basis
• Top drives standard
• Integrated drilling control systems
• Development of inexpensive MWD/RSS

• New drilling technologies, such as coiled tubing drilling, continue to mature and emerge