American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2023 - 58

SpecialReport: Marcellus & Utica Action
integrate Chief's assets and gathering systems that we were
already sharing and could create better financial outcomes by
co-owning them. We continue to look at other acquisitions,
but it's about finding the right transaction at the right time that
will deliver real synergies while clearly fitting within our
merger and acquisition non-negotiables. "
In the meantime, the company innovates to increase lateral
lengths and improve completion designs on a 465,000 net acre
position in Pennsylvania that accounts for 54% of total company
production. The remainder comes from the Haynesville Shale.
Armed with insights from analytical and machine learning
software, Chesapeake drilled three of the five fastest Marcellus
wells this year, Viets reports. For each well, the company drilled
about 19,300 feet of wellbore in a little more than 10 days.
The company achieved that speed in part by tapping data
analysts, geologists and geosteerers at its remote operating center in
Oklahoma City, who use advanced software and visualization
platforms to oversee the nine rigs working across the company.
Systems determine whether wellbores are on target and inform
drilling parameters such as weight on bit, rate of penetration and the
pressure of the mud pumped down the drill string, Viets describes.
By drawing on more than a decade of experience in the Haynesville
and Marcellus that includes drilling 22 million lateral
feet, Chesapeake's technical team has built models through ML
that look ahead 100 feet to predict ROP and other factors in real
time, Viets continues. He says another key application anticipates
when BHAs will fail to help guide when a bit trip should be
made. Deploying these tools has enabled the team to achieve
the highest average footage per day in the Marcellus asset's
history during the most recent quarter.
Technology also has helped the company extend laterals
70% over the past five years, bringing the average upper
Marcellus lateral to around 13,000 feet and the average lower
Marcellus lateral to around 11,000 feet, Viets reports.
To gain additional efficiencies this year, Chesapeake is
leveraging a hybrid development approach that involves
drilling a segment of upper Marcellus and a segment of lower
Marcellus from the same wellbore. The company estimates it
has about 50 locations where this technique could prove advantageous.
In October, the Appalachia team was on the cusp
of bringing on six hybrid wells. One past hybrid had initial
production of 29 MMcf/d, slightly below the company's
average IP of 30 MMcf/d.
" We can accelerate and high grade a lower Marcellus well
by using a single wellbore to drill a section of upper Marcellus
and then drop down and drill a section of lower Marcellus
before coming back up and capturing additional upper Marcellus, "
Viets explains. " That way, a 4,000-foot lateral becomes part of
a 12,000-15,000-foot lateral, which enhances economics and
reduces surface footprint. "
Redefining Efficiency
By employing a super-spec drilling rig and an electric frac
fleet, Range Resources Corp. is finding ways to improve efficiency
and performance as it develops its acreage position, which spans
70,000 net acres in northeastern Pennsylvania and 450,000 acres
in a liquids-rich area in the state's southwest corner.
Those efficiency gains are allowing the company to achieve
its goals with fewer wells. " We still plan to turn to sale approximately
650,000 lateral feet this year. However, we will do so
with 51 wells, 16% fewer than we planned at the start of the
year, " says Chief Executive Officer Dennis Degner.
The company's lateral lengths now average 13,000 feet,
up from 10,000 last year. Degner says the extra length enables
In the first half of 2023, Range
Resources cut drilling times by
40% and completion times by
20%-25%, the company says.
These efficiency gains include
shortening the time between hydraulic
fracturing stages from
15-30 minutes to 5-10.
58 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2023

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