American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019 - 119

SpecialReport: Marcellus/Utica Activity Profile
value, productivity and EURs, he says
the company continues to tweak its completion designs to optimize proppant loading and type along with adjusting managed
pressure drawdown in early flows.
After risk assessments, if the company
is not comfortable producing existing
wells alongside completion work on the
same pad, CNX employs remote sites
for hydraulic fracturing equipment and
crews, especially on smaller pads built
four or five years ago, Neal says. That
way, the only equipment on the pad
during hydraulic fracturing is the perforating equipment, which provides ample
room to install production equipment
during completion work, he goes on.
The remote frac pads increase efficiency and eliminate the need to shut in
existing producing wells, a move that
Neal says has contributed to CNX's boosted completion time cycles by 141 percent
since 2017 and drilling footage per day
by 50 percent.
"We are coming back onto eight different pads this year that have existing
horizontal wells to drill new wells," he
says. "Half of the pads are stacked pays
where we are actually developing a different interval than the producing wells.
Some are Marcellus pads where we are
now drilling Utica wells and vice versa."
With summertime gas prices falling to
multiyear lows, the ability to enhance
economics through stacked play development is crucial to bottom-line performance, Neal states. Economics are also factoring big into the evolution of completion
designs. In deep dry Utica wells in Monroe
County, Oh., for example, he says CNX
is extending inter-lateral spacing from
1,100 to 1,350 feet (inter-lateral spacing
in its Marcellus wells is 750 feet) even
while it increases sand concentrations per
foot and potentially uses more natural
sand in place of premium proppant.
"We are increasing net present value
for the company by eliminating some
laterals and increasing the interlateral
spacing," Neal remarks. "We are performing tests right now to model the impact of going with less ceramic and more
white sand."
Achieving High EURs
This year, Pittsburgh-based PennEnergy
Resources plans to keep at least one rig
drilling on primarily six-well pads and focusing on achieving the highest EURs per
foot instead of pulling hard on its Marcellus
wells for "press release IPs" after initial

completion, says President and Chief Operating Officer Gregory D. Muse.
PennEnergy has plenty of strong, longlateral producing wells capable of making
8 million-10 million cubic feet of gas a
day initially, but Muse says a prudent
well management approach is preferred
to preserve longer-term well yields for
the privately held company, which holds
179,000 net acres in Pennsylvania's Armstrong, Butler and Beaver counties.
"We try to manage early drawdown
to a well's overall production performance
rather than focus on short-term high IPs
that could potentially cause damage to
the well," Muse details. "As a consequence,
we have very low first year decline rates
relative to some competitors. Our Marcellus declines in the first year are around
45%, compared with the Utica where declines can be as high as 80% in year one.
"In the Marcellus, we have seen relatively
low declines and EURs of 2.7 Bcfe-2.9
Bcfe per 1,000 feet of completed lateral.
People are starting to note that the Marcellus
has very low decline rates relative to the
Utica, but even within the Marcellus play,
we have some of the lowest decline rates
compared with Marcellus wells in Washington and Greene counties," he says.
With daily production of 570 MMcf
of gas and 3,600 barrels of condensate
from a producing well count of 350,
PennEnergy has an inventory of nearly
1,100 potential drilling locations following
its acquisition of Rex Energy last year.
According to Muse, the company can

drill about 40 wells a year to total depth
using a top-hole rig to air drill 2,0002,500 feet vertically and a conventional
rig to drill laterals with fluid, adding that
the company can deploy a second rig if
prices firm. Six-well pads have proven
to be the most efficient for capital utilization and rate-of-return purposes, he
says, along with frac stages of about 180
feet in wet gas areas and 200 feet in dry
gas regions, although lengths can vary
by need, he notes.
Engineered Completions
"We are very focused on engineered
completions," Muse offers. "We look at
each well individually, whether it is an
offset well to a parent well or an interior
well, and we will design our hydraulic
fracturing around that, including stages
lengths and numbers, pounds of sand per
foot and pumping rates. A typical well not
offsetting a parent well will be completed
with at least 2,500 pounds of sand per foot
at a pump rate of 100 barrels a minute."
Although PennEnergy is considering
the possible sale of the Warrior North
Utica assets in Carroll County, Oh., formerly
a part of Rex, the Rex acquisition has
proven to be a solid strategic fit in the
Marcellus, Muse says. PennEnergy continues to keep an eye out for other acquisition opportunities, Muse reveals. "If the
right opportunity is there, we might make
an acquisition, but it has to be a strategic
fit at the right price," he says.
While market access out of the Ap-

PennEnergy Resources' is drilling primarily six-well pads and designing engineered completions tailored to each individual well's specific characteristics. Once a well is fractured,
the company is managing flowrates to achieve high EURs per foot of lateral over the long
term. PennEnergy's B5 pad in Beaver County, Pa., is shown here.

AUGUST 2019 119

American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019

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