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To: staytrue
Just 30 years ago it was a radical idea to drill horizontal wells in the Bakken Shale.

Those wells had lots of hole problems and rarely paid out.

It was almost impossible to get any oil company to drill stem test (open hole) in the Bakken (there were solid engineering considerations, even in a vertical well).

Fifteen years ago the idea of drilling horizontal wells in the Middle Bakken (not the Shale itself, but a layer between the shales where both the upper and lower shale are developed was a radical idea.

Fourteen years ago, I worked my first one of those wells as a wellsite geologist, one of the early wells in the Elm Coulee Field, which, when developed, doubled Montana's oil production--and before that development was even done, we were drilling wells in North Dakota, in the Bakken, and then Three Forks formation in the deeper parts of the Williston Basin.

Now, the drilling part is fairly commonplace, even though it, too, is being refined constantly (multiwell pads, walking rigs), and the production and completion end of things are being subjected to the greatest scrutiny to make completions yield better results.

It is a never-ending chain of refinements and adaptation.

When Californians decide the revenue is more important than dogma, when the AGW debunking finally reaches the halls of Government and cooler heads prevail, then the Monterey will be drilled, techniques developed and refined, just as they have been elsewhere.

78 posted on 05/22/2014 5:55:47 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe
You gave me a idea of " walking rigs " ... now let's think and wait a minute... suppose ?
Let's say a walking rig made like those huge roving hulk pads they use to use for the Saturn 5 rocket or the space shuttle ?
Have all the rigs and equipment on a roving pad like that ? and when you want to move it ? just unhook the connections, draw up the pipes and turn the tracks like a Sherman tank.
94 posted on 05/22/2014 7:55:33 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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