Benefits
The HFTS2—Delaware field test site provides the opportunity to address the “billion-dollar problem,” or the optimal development of a “stacked pay” resource which requires simultaneous drilling and completion of tens-of-thousands of wells across multiple geologic horizons. Drilling too many wells results in a waste of resources such as water, steel casings, and other infrastructure while adding to emissions issues and land footprint. Drilling too few wells, from the perspective of well spacing, leaves valuable resources in the ground. Research results from this project are expected to have positive impact on economic, environmental, and resource recovery factors.
Simultaneous drilling and completion of wells in multiple geologic formations can reduce the overall cost of oil and gas production on a per-well basis, thus providing more drilling locations in the future, even at lower oil/gas prices. Continued long-term production adds jobs and increases economic output of the producing region and the U.S. economy as a whole.
The greatest beneficial impact to be derived from the proposed research will be achieved through determination of optimum well spacing and hydraulic fracture design. If the resulting optimization leads to a resource recovery increase of 1%, an additional 1.6 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from the Permian Basin. This optimization further leads to elimination of many wells currently drilled at non-optimum well spacing.