American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2022 - 41

SpecialReport: Planet Permian
downhole complications, Fizer continues.
For instance, washout alerts or other
details provided by machine learning
analyses are driving progress with realtime
data on everything from weight on
bit to pump pressures and rates, he says.
Capturing Synergies
In keeping with its diversified roots,
Coterra Energy Inc. is capturing technological
synergies between its core operation
areas, and freely adopting new technologies
and sharing findings internally to
identify the best drilling and completion
approaches across a broad position that
includes 234,000 acres in the Permian
Basin, says Vice President of Business
Units Michael DeShazer.
The Houston-based company emerged
in 2021 from the combination of Cabot
Oil & Gas Corp. and Cimarex Energy
Co., bringing together operations in Permian
oil, Appalachia gas and Oklahoma
liquids-rich assets. At the outset, operations
teams from both legacy companies immediately
worked to understand how
each approached assessments, drilling,
completion and production operations
and technologies without prejudging or
insisting on mandates, says DeShazer,
who oversees business units in the Permian
and Anadarko basins.
" It is amazing to see how fruitful it
can be and how many ideas are shared
when you open the doors and take down
the barriers between teams, " he says.
Some practices and applications vary
from the dry gas window of the Marcellus
Shale to the multilayered intervals in the
oil-rich Delaware Basin, but Coterra's business
units are drilling two miles down and
two miles out and will continue to learn
from one another, DeShazer confirms.
The combined company maintains a
willingness, birthed in predecessor companies,
to deploy the latest innovations in
the Permian, he stresses. For instance, he
says, Cimarex was among the first in the
Delaware Basin to deploy off line cementing
that allows rigs to be skidded over to
begin drilling a new well without first cementing
the casing, which is done later
Coterra Energy Inc. is leveraging a number of innovative strategies and solutions across
its Permian asset base, including tankless production facilities equipped with vapor recovery
units to reduce venting and flaring.
by a dedicated cement crew. " The technique
allows for substantial savings over the
course of a project, " DeShazer reports.
Technology Solutions
On the drilling front, the company
routinely experiments with new bits and
has been involved in several trials using
one-run drilling systems to bore wells'
curve and lateral sections without tripping,
he reveals. Geosteering is deployed routinely
to complement extensive seismic
and well log data.
Although completion designs are
kept close to the vest, Coterra is flexible,
leveraging machine learning algorithms
to help its experts assess variations
within structures to help determine
lateral landings, well spacing and stimulation
plans for the Delaware Basin's
Bone Spring and Wolfcamp benches,
DeShazer says.
A premium is placed on having as
much discriminant data as possible to
explore changes in outcomes determined
by even the slightest variations in proppant
or water, instead of automatic adjustments
to both simultaneously, he says.
DeShazer adds that extensive in-house
data on legacy completions helps fill gaps
in public information that lacks details
on cluster spacings and shots per foot
while including lateral lengths and proppant
and fluid aggregates.
Fiber optic and downhole cameras
gauge outcomes during fracs, including
perforation erosion, with a confluence of
technologies allowing the company to
tailor each frac design (cluster spacing
and count can vary by stage) to most effectively
divert fluid evenly across a stimulation
stage, he says.
Throughout the process, the company
focuses on incremental returns. " For example,
an eight-well pad and 10-well
pad may have similar net present values
for potential oil and gas production, but
drilling those two extra wells can mean
spending more money without any additional
gain, " DeShazer notes.
Pump selection after initial flow ebbs
includes electric submersible pumps deployed
in more oily areas in the northern
Delaware Basin and gas lift in gassier
properties in the southern Delaware, with
gas lift supply supported by Coterra's
own midstream operation, he says.
In addition to the focus down hole,
technological innovations to reduce emissions
above ground include an electric
frac fleet, a move toward electric compressors,
tankless facilities with vessels
that allow vapor recovery units to pull
off gas vapors, and a dedication to a
steadfast goal of eliminating routine flaring,
DeShazer concludes.
FEBRUARY 2022 41

American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2022

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