Drilling around fault lines

I’ve learned there are some fault lines in Blaine County. Are these a big problem for drilling wells.

Hi Hank. Yes, faulting can cause huge problems. If the drillbit is on the wrong side of the fault the zone of interest can be absent, or under water. It is a lot more complicated than that, but that is faulting in laymans terms.

Todd M. Baker

The answer depends upon what kind of fault, how close the fault is to your acreage and the proposed wellbore, what the throw of the fault is with respect to the reservoir, etc. Too generic a question to answer either pro or con. Geologists certainly want to know where the faults are and take that into account for the drilling locations as they do not want to be on the wrong side or have one cause drilling safety issues.