PBS-SEPM 2021 October Luncheon - Laura Freeman

"Low Rate Horizontal Wells: Bane of Existence or Lateral to Opportunity?"
 
Presented by Laura Freeman at the October Luncheon Meeting of the Permian Basin Section-SEPM
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
 
ABSTRACT: In the February 2021 issue of JPT (Society of Engineers’ Journal of Petroleum Technology) Ms. Freeman wrote a Guest Editorial titled “Hundreds of Thousands of Stripper Wells - Massive Liability or Golden Opportunity?”. In the article, she looked at the number of vertical stripper wells in the US by region, and found a staggering percentage of US Onshore vertical wells are low-rate producers. The economic viability of these wells has become a major topic of interest as has the discussion around who can successfully operate these wells and make a profit. Here, Laura will show similar work done for horizontal wells and will discuss the issues around the growing number of horizontals getting down around the 30 BOPD mark. With higher base fixed costs than vertical wells, there are a lot of questions about what to do with later life laterals. For smaller operators, there is potentially a lot of opportunity in being able to operate lean and make money where larger operators and financial-type groups cannot.