How horizontal drilling innovation in Fractured Austin Chalk increased oil and g

Posted by Ainsley Aiken on October 13th, 2018

Since the 1920s, Austin Chalk is one of the leading oil and gas producing sites in Texas. It has the capacity of producing 948 million barrels of oil and over 5.6 trillion cubic feet natural gas. The statistical report published in the year 2016 depicted the amount of natural resources produced by the site. The major oil field in this area producing natural gas and oil is Giddings Field. This area is spread over 7 different counties. This site alone gives an impressive output of 526 million barrels of crude oil alone and 4.7 trillion cubic feet natural gas.

Recent development in the process

As Fractured Austin Chalk lies on the top of Eagle Ford Formation, the fossil fuel tends to imbibe into the micro-fractures present in the chalk deposition. The huge tectonic fractures are extremely porous causing the oil to seep in filling the void spaces. Due to the tectonic movements, the fissure in the chalk deposition has increasingly become a significant point for the recent operators to find oil.

Chalk itself has low permeability for the oil to seep in. The natural fractured zones offer a higher degree of permeability for the fossil fuel. These cracks are very few and the production rate dips eventually. Despite the challenges, the operators have found excellent ways to identify the porous intervals and target them to drill. The horizontal wells are specifically identified and targeted to drill and avail the deposited resource.

These operators are creating their own fracture network which is permeable. The fractured network present within the porous intervals is more complex and concentrated inside. These are the best places to dig as the network is far easier to identify and productive than the naturally existing versions.

Horizontal drilling combined with multistage fracture stimulation

The perfect combination of horizontal drilling including the incorporation of multistage fracture inside the horizontal wells has sparked a revolution. This is probably the best innovation that has been largely accepted by other oilfields. The reason is quite simple. The efficiency of the drilling technique yields a grand success. The rate of success is also higher. The surge in the production growth is remarkable. It was essentially zero in the year 2008 but reached drastically to 1.7 MMBOPD within 6 years in 2014. The new innovation used in Fractured Austin Chalk increased the production rate after a long span of decline. The production of oil has increased to 75 MMBPOD and that of gas reached to 320 MMCFGPD by 2017.