American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016 - 58

SpecialReport: Horizontal & Innovative Drilling
According to Schlumberger, the fiveblade, 81⁄2-inch bit was designed specifically for drilling extended lateral sections using its PowerDrive Orbit™ rotary steerable
system to minimize erosion while meeting requirements for both steerability and
penetration rates. The bit was designed for
optimal performance and improved cleaning using modeling solutions within the
Schlumberger IDEAS™ integrated dynamic design and analysis platform, as
well as computational fluid dynamics, the
company adds.
Hulburt says the drilling and completion fluid was the only component in the
system that required customizing for superlateral drilling. "We did a lot of work
with downhole friction reducers because
of the lateral length and the amount of water we were using," he remarks. "Once we
tweaked the chemistry, the fluid worked
very well."
While the well's record lateral length
made the headlines, the completion operation was no less newsworthy. Hulburt re-

ports that only one of the 125 total stages
failed to effectively put away the 1,400
pounds pumped per foot of lateral. The efficiencies achieved during treatment allowed Eclipse to improve its daily completion rate by 20 percent over the original plan.
Based on prior Utica wells, Hulburt
says Eclipse Resources' used an optimal
frac design on Purple Hayes that consisted of 100 percent slickwater and white
sand. "The single biggest variable we have
seen in frac effectiveness is switching from
hybrid and cross-linked gel systems to all
slickwater," he offers. "We think proppant
concentration is important, but using 100
percent slickwater appears to be the determining factor in well performance. Slickwater appears to create a more complex
fracture system closer to the wellbore. The
added advantage is that it also is cheaper
than hybrid and cross-linked gels."
The stages were spaced evenly to create optimal stimulation density throughout the lateral section. "We have experi-

One of the challenges in forecasting production from the Purple Hayes is that the lateral
is so long it extends across two Utica Shale type curve areas, with the toe of the well in a
heavier liquids model. These type curve maps show original gas-in-place estimates for
Eclipse Resources' Utica acreage position, as well as its Marcellus leasehold. The Utica
map delineates the dry gas, rich gas and condensate regions, including the very rich condensate area in Guernsey County, Oh., in which the Purple Hayes superlateral is located.

58 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

mented with stage spacing, and see benefits with tighter spacing in heavier condensate areas," Hulburt says. "We expect
to maintain spacing on the order of 100150 feet in condensate wells and 220 feet
in dry gas wells."
Halliburton performed the frac treatment using dual-fuel and SandCastle®
proppant loading units equipped with
dust control systems. The well also
achieved a North American land plug setting depth record of 26,641 feet using Halliburton's Obsidian® composite plugs.
Other key contractors included Nine
Energy Service, which provided the wireline work during the completion phase, and
Deep Well Services, which performed
snubbing services during frac plug millout and tubular installation. Nine Energy
Service says it worked directly with
Eclipse to design the plug-and-perf system
using NOV's Cerberus™ modeling software, and completed all 124 stages with
no nonproductive time or misruns. According to Deep Well Services, it enhanced the
hydraulic rotary capabilities of its 285,000pound stand-alone snubbing unit to accommodate the demands of Purple Hayes,
achieving plug-back total depth at 26,868
feet.
"As with the drilling operations, there
was very little downtime during the frac
treatment," Hulburt attests. "It was a very
well-run operation."
Despite the scale and complexity of the
project and all the logistics involved,
Purple Hayes was drilled and completed
under the budgeted $15.8 million. "We are
proud of that. It is the result of an extensive amount of planning and preparation,
as well as a collaborative team effort with
our service contractors," Hulburt relates.
"But while we could not be happier
with our contractors, the success of this
project is because we have the best technical team in the business," he continues.
"We made the decision a few years ago to
develop world-class technical expertise

American Oil and Gas Reporter - July 2016

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