American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2017 - 46

SpecialReport: Shale Resource Science

Best in class well results and verificationof full
lateral contribution through tracer data

13,000' LL

19,000' LL

Peer 1
9,000'

Peer 2
8,000'

Peer 3
9,000'

Eclipse
13,000'

Utica Dry Gas

$737

$950
Peer 4
8,000'

$818

$1,450

26%
6,000 LL

2017
Avaerage 2 planned
in 2017

$1,450

Utica Condensate

Eclipse
19,000'

Peer 1
9,000'

Peer 2
8,000'

Peer 3
9,000'

$1,044

Peer Leading Cost per Foot

85%

$1,083

67%

$1,179

Utica Condensate 2017 Type Curve IRR

$1,044

Verify recoverability across lateral & ability
to maintain EUR per 1,000 foot metrics

Peer 4
9,000'

2017
Avaerage

$935

Longest onshore horizontal lateral drilled in
less than 18 days with 124 completed stages

$989

Concept

Test ability to drill and complete
in efficient manner

Eclipse
13,000'

Initiated last year with the ground-breaking Purple Hayes No.
1H in Guernsey County, Oh., Eclipse's super lateral program is
revolutionizing the cost structure and economic returns associated with developing acreage in both the dry gas and condensate areas in the Utica Shale.

crew the very next month, when it also pumped a record 82 million pounds of proppant in Eclipse wells.
He says Elipse orients its laterals 15-20 degrees of north-south.
"If you look at the historical geology in the United States, you
want to drill perpendicular to the direction of maximum stress
field," he explains.

46 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Increasing proppant
loading and
decrease
stage spacing to
increase
stimulated
reservoir volume
(SRV)

Initial reservoir
modeling supports
stimulated reservoir
volume and
productivity
enhancement

Maintain
completion cost
structure

Able to complete
within 2% of prior Gen
2 well costs due to
operational efficiencies
of team

Enhance type
curve economics
across
Utica Condensate
and Utica Dry
Gas locations

Increasing Utica
Condensate and Utica
Rich Gas type curves
to reflect Gen 3
success optimistic on
early Utica Dry Gas
results

Generation 1
- 250' stage spacing
- XLing gels

Proppant
Loading
Stage
Spacing

Pressure
Drawdown

Engineered
Flowback

Generation 3
- 100% slickwater
- Decreased stage spacing
- Increased sand concentration
Generation 4
- Further optimized sand use
- Diversion techniques
- Engineered flow back

Generation 1

Sllickwater

Generation 2
- 100% slickwater
- Fit for purpose friction reducers

Accomplishment

Optimized Completions
According to Tolmachev, the company began the first phase
of its eastern Ohio Utica Shale horizontal drilling program using 200- to 240-foot frac stage spacing and pumping 1,400-1,500
pounds of proppant per foot of lateral using a mixture of slickwater, linear gel and cross-linked gel. It then moved to a secondgeneration design with 100-percent slickwater. In Generation 3,
the latest evolution of the company's preferred frac design, the
all-slickwater treatments have tighter stage spacing and increased
sand concentrations.
"By identifying important parameters, we now are using slickwater only and have tightened frac stages to 150 feet using 2,3002,800 pounds of proppant per foot," Tolmachev explains. "Wells
completed with the Generation 3 design pump 53 percent more
proppant per lateral foot and have 38 percent tighter stage spacing than wells completed with the first-generation design."
Tolmachev indicates Eclipse has realized a 20 percent increase
in reserves with its newest template. By eliminating the gels and
going to 150-foot frac stages and pumping more proppant, he
claims the company has "decreased cost and increased reserves."
Using slickwater fluids only, he says, allows Eclipse to reuse
its flowback water and thus reduce saltwater disposal volumes.
"Slickwater fluids are less viscous, which creates a more efficient
fracture geometry, less damage to the formation, and higher fracture conductivity," Tolmachev relates. "A more complex fracture
network also exposes more shale surface area, and in condensate
areas, a more conductive propped fracture network allows gas and
condensate to flow to the wellbore for a longer time."
In the meantime, he says, tighter stage spacing ensures proper frac initiations across all perforation clusters, and the higher
proppant loading increases the stimulated reservoir volume and
keeps a larger percentage of the fracture network propped
open, leading to enhanced productivity and higher EURs
Eclipse also has implemented an engineered flowback, according to Tolmachev. "If you flow a well back at too high of a rate,
you can wash out the proppant, which means a loss of reserves,"

he warns. "The rate has to be high enough to flow back the fluid, but not so high that it damages the fracture geometry. There
is a lot of science using engineering models to find the sweet spot
because we do not want to waste our fracture stages."
The results of the company's Generation 3 completion design,
in conjunction with extended-reach laterals, are remarkable, Tolmachev says. Eclipse indicates that its initial production rate will
increase 21 percent this year, from 4.3 million cubic feet a day
equivalent in 2016 to 5.2 MMcfe/d in the Utica condensate window, thus increasing each well's EUR 16 percent from 900 MMcfe per 1,000 feet to 1.1 Bcfe/1,000 feet.
Meanwhile, in the Utica rich-gas window, Eclipse claims the
Generation 3 design will increase initial production rates 55 percent, from 14.3 MMcfe/d to 22.1 MMcfe/d, while boosting EURs
22 percent, from 1.8 Bcfe/1,000 feet to 2.2 Bcf/1,000 feet.
The company is accomplishing all that with an equally remarkable modest increase in well costs, Tolmachev reports, raising total costs from $800 to $818 (0.02 percent) per 1,000 feet of drilled
and completed lateral.
Douglas Kris, vice president of investor relations, points out
those numbers demonstrate that while much of the industry has
moved away from liquids plays to dry gas, Eclipse can make it
work with a highly economic rate of return. "We are on the forefront of operators going back to more liquids," he claims.
Eclipse says its acreage in Guernsey, Noble, Monroe and Belmont counties in southeastern Ohio includes 41 percent Utica dry
gas, 36 percent Utica condensate, 13 percent Marcellus condensate and 8 percent Utica rich gas. The company reports that all
type-curve areas are generating returns better than 65 percent at
strip pricing.

Goal

Cost per lateral foot 44% lower than
nonoperated wells

Accomplishment

Reduce cost per lateral foot
to enhance returns

Generation 2

Generation 3

Wet

Dry

Wet

Dry

Wet

Dry

65%

40%

100%

100%

100%

100%

1,700 #/ft

1,600 #/ft

1,400 #/ft

1,400 #/ft

2,300 #/ft

2,800 #/ft

230'

235'

150'

225'

150'

150 psi/week

200 psi/week

100 psi/week

150 psi/week

50-75 psi/week

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

200'

120-150
psi/week
N/A

Eclipse Resources has continuously improved the completion
designs used in its Utica and Marcellus horizontal wells. Its Generation 3 design has increased proppant loading and decreased
stage spacing to maximize stimulated reservoir volumes and
generate higher EURs and returns. Its Generation 4 design is
being tested this year, further optimizing proppant loading and
adding diversion and engineered flowback techniques.
American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2017
