American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2017 - 43

SpecialReport: Pad Operations
to develop our oil and gas interests, but
also to the communities in the form of
tax and royalty revenues," he concludes.
"SRC and its employees also are actively
involved with local charities such as the
Poudre Learning Center, the Weld County
Food Bank, the Boys & Girls Club of
Weld County and many other nonprofit
organizations in the area."
Going The Extra Mile

A pioneer in perfecting the silent science to go the extra mile in producing oil
and gas to the greatest benefit of local
communities and citizens, as well as to
its own employees and shareholders, is
Denver-based Extraction Oil & Gas. The
company holds 230,000 net acres in the
D-J Basin, much of it centered in the
Wattenberg Field. By working closely
with Colorado cities such as Greeley,
Berthoud and Windsor, Extraction increased its production from fewer than
150 barrels of oil equivalent a day in
early 2014 to 40,000 boe/d during first
quarter 2017.
Co-Founder and President Matt Owens
attributes much of the company's success
to a team that is eager to push the technical

envelope. "It is important to us that communities not only in Colorado but elsewhere understand how much technology
has advanced," he says. "By using horizontal drilling and pioneering techniques
to mitigate our impacts at the surface,
we can drill in areas that once would
have been inaccessible."
The company's efforts to limit its impacts begin with site selection, Owens
relates. "We have certain assets that come
with legal agreements for drilling in the
middle of a city, but even with the best
mitigation efforts, we do not think that is
feasible," he says. "We try to move those
sites from the city's interior to the boundaries, where our operations will be less
disruptive."
That generally means drilling lengthy
laterals, Owens acknowledges. "We drill
intricate wellbores," he reports. "In fact,
we had one well where we drilled a mile
to the south to get to the formation we
wanted to produce, then drilled west a
mile and a half to access it."
As a rule of thumb, Owens says Extraction considers formations within almost
three miles of a pad site to be accessible.
"We were planning two and a half mile

To minimize the noise associated with multistage completion operations on horizontal well pads in the Wattenberg Field, Extraction
Oil & Gas deploys an advanced quiet hydraulic fracturing ﬂeet to
reduce sound levels by 25 percent compared with traditional fracturing spreads. Achieved largely by enclosing the diesel-powered

laterals when many companies in the DJ Basin had not yet drilled a two-mile
lateral," he recalls. "Long, tortuous laterals
are harder to drill, complete and produce,
but with such limited surface options in
certain areas, we knew we would have to
make those laterals work. We have one
of the best drilling departments in U.S.
onshore, and its innovations make it all
possible."
Even with careful site selection, Extraction must at times drill close to peoples'
homes and businesses, Owens notes. He
says the company takes steps at every
stage of development to mitigate noise,
traffic and emissions.
"We were the first company in the DJ Basin to drill with electricity from the
power grid," he says. "The diesel generators normally used to power drilling
rigs are easily the loudest pieces of equipment on a drill site. Using electricity not
only gets rid of that noise, but also eliminates the emissions that come from burning diesel 24 hours a day."
Quiet Completions

Being a good neighbor means addressing completion noise as well, Owens

engines, transmissions and pumps, the quiet completion equipment generates a level of noise at 1,000 feet that is only slightly
above that of a typical urban neighborhood at night. Installing temporary sound walls brings the noise even lower.

JUNE 2017 43

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2017

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