Re-fracture newly drilled wells?

I’m anticipating royalties from 15 lateral wells being drilled under my (and others) property. In February 2025 they posted (via a Field Operations Notice) that they were fracking and would expect flowback to begin in May. As the date approached they submitted a new form stating that they were fracturing in May and expected flowback on August. Does this mean they are re-fracturing, and if so, why would this be needed?

You can watch the dates of fracks on www.fracfocus.org. Use the advanced search option as it is easier than the map. They may have moved the time frame due to availability of crews and supplies.

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I think you may be right. I’ve checked fracfocus and I only see one “job” listed for one of the 15 wells. Thanks for that new source for checking the progress.

@tedthehead

they probably don’t have facility capacity available. if they frac’d immediately after they drilled the well; they’re not going to frac it again before putting it on production. frac’s are very expensive and the point of refrac’s is to try and have the fracture propagate along a path different from the original frac path. the reason this happens theoretically is because the original frac changes the stress regime in the vicinity of the wellbore. as a result of this, a subsequent frac should propagate along a different path - thus contacting new reservoir. refrac’s have very mixed results in the industry - but there are examples where they work. that said, they aren’t done one after the other; they are done after the production from the initial frac declines back to matrix flow.

15 new lateral wells on the same section? What state/area? That seems abnormally high. If youre reading the info they sent you correctly and they are drilling that many wells at once, youll need to hire a good CPA and congrats!

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Unfortunately, I own a small portion of the mineral rights. But enough to be happy. As a follow up on the truck photo, can anyone explain what is going on in this photo taken today. Again 15 wells, one in flowback, 14 ready or actively frac’ing. That’s a lot of trucks ready for something.