American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2017 - 64

SpecialReport: Marcellus/Utica Activity
He says Chesapeake has created modular
facilities, which it calls trains, to dewater
the dry gas and make it pipeline ready.
Each module, or train, can handle about
15 MMcf/d, he explains, and Chesapeake
can put multiple trains on a prolific well
and then move modules elsewhere as production declines. The upshot, Burleson
notes, is more economic operations.
Lessons From Louisiana
A prime example of the bigger, longer,
faster approach comes in the form of
Chesapeake's McGavin E WYO 6H well
in Wyoming County in northeastern Pennsylvania. According to the company, the
monster well reached a peak rate of 61.7
million cubic feet a day of dry gas after
six days of production, making it the
highest-rated operated Marcellus Shale
well in the company's history. Chesapeake
used four modules, or trains, to handle
the well's initial production.
The history of the McGavin 6H well
actually reaches back several years and
1,000 miles, explains Frank Patterson,
Chesapeake's executive vice president of
production and exploration.
"A couple years ago, we had a field in
the Haynesville Shale in northwestern
Louisiana," he recounts. "It was a deep,
high-pressure field, and initially we believed the economic portion was relatively
small. Traditionally, we used the standard
stimulation, but found it was less attractive
as we got away from the core. So, we

started drilling longer laterals with larger
sand concentrations in the Haynesville,
which allowed us to expand this small
economic area into a bigger play."
Applying lessons from the Haynesville,
the McGavin 6H well marks the first time
Chesapeake has used this technique in
the Marcellus. Patterson says the McGavin
6H well features a 10,429-foot lateral,
while its 3,000 pounds of proppant per
linear foot nearly doubles the volume of
Chesapeake's previous approach. He adds
that the company's Haynesville proppant
use has ballooned to as much as 5,000
pounds per foot, but indicates that the
Marcellus' superior rock makes such proppant load unnecessary in the Marcellus.
"We still are trying to find the perfect
formula," he acknowledges. "The idea is
to maximize recovery for each foot of
rock."
Patterson deems the McGavin 6H well
an important step because Chesapeake's
acreage includes both core and noncore
areas. The company has 750,000 acres in
Bradford, Susquehanna and Wyoming counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. "We consider 250,000 of those acres to be core, but
we could double that total with this enhanced
completion strategy," he suggests.
According to Chesapeake, the company's Northeast Pennsylvania acreage possesses stacked pay potential, too. "Not
only are we expanding horizontally, but
we also are moving vertically," Burleson
says, indicating Chesapeake plans to apply

the same techniques to the Upper Marcellus
and the deeper Utica Shale that it is employing in the Lower Marcellus.
Patterson concurs that the Utica is a
prime candidate for the enhanced completion
strategy, and says Chesapeake is testing its
new technology in the Utica and plans to
take wells deeper into the formation in
2018 in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Utica In Ohio
Patterson points out that Chesapeake
also has 1 million acres in the Utica in
Ohio that transition across the oil, wet
gas and dry gas windows.
"We are focused on the wet gas and
dry gas," he reports.
Burleson adds that the company is
running two rigs and two fracturing crews
that move back and forth between its
northeastern Pennsylvania acreage and
its Ohio leasehold. Chesapeake has drilled
and completed 30 Utica wells in Ohio.
"We are doing similar tests in the Utica," he relates, "pumping different completion designs. We have moved as much
as 2,500 pounds of proppant per foot,
and we are experimenting with different
fluid systems, using both slickwater and
gels. We are moving toward slickwater,
and doing multiple cluster spacing tests."
Burleson maintains that Chesapeake
has seen a 25-40 percent production uplift
with the increased proppant loads, and
he predicts another 10 percent increase
on top of that with the use of slickwater.

API Highlights Benefits Of Oil And Gas
WASHINGTON-Responsible development is the centerpiece of what makes
natural gas and oil essential to the world's
modern life, the American Petroleum Institute asserts. In its report, Energy and
Communities: Prioritizing Safety, Health
and Environmental Stewardship, API says
the industry continues to demonstrate constant improvement, investments and technological innovations in all three areas.
"Energy development can enhance
communities in countless ways not
always recognized," says API Executive
Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer
Marty Durbin. "America's natural gas
and oil industry is committed to producing
more energy while reducing our footprint
and improving the efficiency and safety
of our operations, and helping local
communities where we operate."
64 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Even as domestic gas and oil production have surged during the past
decade, U.S. workplace incident rates
have fallen, the report says, with more
than 99.99 percent of products moved
by pipeline arriving without incident.
U.S. carbon emissions and criteria pollutants have declined as newly abundant
shale gas supplies transform the power
generation sector, and cars and refineries
have become more efficient.
"Exporting natural gas, crude oil and
refined products strengthens our economy,
benefits our allies and weakens the hand
of nations that use energy trade as a
geopolitical weapon," Energy and Communities states. "A study by ICF International projects that by exporting crude
oil, the United States can add as many
as 300,000 jobs in 2020 and grow the

economy by $38.1 billion. Additionally,
ICF calculated that exports of liquefied
natural gas could add as many as 452,000
jobs by 2035 and grow the economy by
$73.6 billion."
The study points out many of those
gas exports can help the global economy
by allowing countries to modernize their
energy infrastructures by moving toward
clean-burning natural gas.
"America's natural gas and oil industry
provides the affordable, reliable energy
that is the lifeblood of our economy, and
we understand that the nation's prosperity
fundamentally relies on our industry's
ability to produce more of these resources
in a way that promotes safety, benefits
our communities, and values environmental stewardship," API's Durbin says.
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2017

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