American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2015 - 125

SpecialReport: Performance Drilling
ment and completion costs, for example,
across multiple wells.
"Service costs actually are lower because the service companies don't need as
much manpower," Hoffman illustrates.
"But there are a lot of things to consider.
We call it project management similar to
that of a factory. You are not making money when you are rigging equipment up and
down."
CONSOL has settled on a standard of
four-six wells per pad. "Beyond that,
there is a lag time in cash flow," Hoffman
reasons. "Fewer than that, and you aren't
gaining the cost advantages of drilling multiple wells on a pad. You have to find that
sweet spot."
Surface and subsurface spacing is important also, according to Hoffman. He
says CONSOL utilizes 20 feet between
wellheads. In the subsurface, it uses about
750-foot spacing between laterals in the
dry gas window and 600- to 800-foot spacing in wet gas areas. Like the optimal number of wells per pad, he calls spacing a balancing act.
"It depends," Hoffman muses. "If you
move the laterals closer, you could have
interference. The amount of drainage
dictates that. You want minimum interference with maximum recovery."
He says CONSOL typically fractures
two wells at a time, preferably wells going in opposite directions. "Technically,
they are stacked laterals," Hoffman describes. "On the surface, personnel appear
to be doing zipper stimulation operations, but underground they are stacked
fractures. It is all geology driven. You have
to balance operational efficiency with
getting the most bang for the buck."

Driving Efficiency
Although CONSOL has drilled Marcellus and Upper Devonian laterals off the
same pad, Hoffman reports that this
spring, the company plans, for the first
time, to stimulate a pad in Monroe County, Oh., that includes both Marcellus and
Utica laterals. He says that forces some adjustments since each horizon has different
pressures (about 10,000 psi in the Marcellus and 15,000 psi in the Utica).
"We have gone to a standard gas production unit in the dry gas window of the
Marcellus," Hoffman reveals. "In the Utica, there is some variability, such as how
much condensate you are producing. Will
you truck the condensate or pipe it? Some
of that is a midstream issue and some is pad
design. In the dry gas Marcellus, we have

CONSOL Energy reckons its Marcellus and Utica shale drilling and completion economics based on lateral feet of wellbore, rather than number of wellheads per pad. "We
even consider construction cost per foot of lateral," comments Kurtis Hoffman, general
manager of completions. "We talk only in terms of the number of lateral feet per pad."

a homogeneous solution, but it is not one
size fits all in the wet gas areas."
Five years ago, Hoffman says, CONSOL was happy to drill a 4,000-foot lateral. Today, it is targeting 8,000-foot laterals, and will drill longer when it can. The
company has exceeded 10,000-foot laterals, he says.
Perhaps the biggest lesson in pad
drilling that CONSOL has learned, however, is that "time is money," according to
Hoffman.
"Every day you are not efficient costs
you additional money," he emphasizes.
"We are scrutinizing down to 15 minutes
how long it takes to do something. If we
can reduce rig-moving time, use dual
workover rigs, or run multiple separators
parallel, we can move the revenue stream
forward. Every minute is important. Much
of our equipment is daily rentals. If we can
shrink that time, we don't just delay the
cost, we don't have to pay it."
Vendor selection becomes important,
too. Hoffman says it is critical to select
vendors that not only have the same safety values as CONSOL, but that also will
work with the company on project cost
management.
The brutally cold winters experienced
in the Northeast the last two years have exposed yet another advantage to pad
drilling. "It is cheaper to run tarps and indirect heaters on multiple wells on a pad
rather than on a single well," Hoffman reports, noting that CONSOL uses brine to
avoid freeze-ups.
Although CONSOL hasn't done it yet,

Hoffman says he believes the industry will
increasingly use produced natural gas to
fuel its pumping equipment in an effort to
decrease costs and reduce its environmental impact. CONSOL is beginning a project at the Pittsburgh International Airport
in which it will utilize diesel engines that
meet Tier 4 final air quality specifications.
"They actually will have lower emissions than dual-fuel engines," he praises.
Lessons Learned
David Elkin, senior vice president of
drilling and completions for EQT Corporation, says pad drilling has become an integral part of his company's drilling and
completions process in the Marcellus, Utica and Lower Huron plays, yielding many
cost and operational advantages.
"We are able to produce reservoirs efficiently while limiting the number of required locations," he states. "During
the drilling and completion phase, having multiple wells on a pad allows the
drilling rig and completion crews to
stay on one location longer. This not only
allows us to drill and complete the wells
faster and more efficiently, but also reduces the amount of community disturbance and wear and tear on roads, and results in less surface disturbance for our
landowners."
He notes that if EQT was unable to drill
more than one well on each pad, 50-70
truckloads (drilling rigs and completion
crews) would be moving on roadways
weekly.
Through the evolution of multiwell deAPRIL 2015 125

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2015

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