Horizontal drilling is 30+ years old and started showing up in a decent quantity around here about 25 years ago. Chevron and Chesapeake drilled several in Stephens county in the mid 90s. I think we have a small interest in about 5 horizontal wells that were drilled in 95-97 in Stephens.
Everything is relative, so I guess it depends on your definition of relatively new idea. Even though commercial drilling is 120+ years old in Oklahoma, 25+ years is a pretty long time.
The spacing for vertical wells is usually based upon the depth of the horizon and product to be produced with oil having smaller spacings and gas having larger. In general, they would space oil at 40-80 acres and gas at 160 for shallow horizons (perhaps~6000') and larger spacing at deeper horizons with the max being 640 for gas. Oil has a larger molecule and gas has smaller molecules so can travel through smaller porosity and permeability. All dependent upon pressure. Traditional reservoirs of sands would have geologic shapes based upon their depositional system. Quite often in the shape of rivers, sand bars, delta fans, etc. Limestones are quite different in shape due to their depositional environment-round atolls to long reefs, etc. The spacing unit is designed for one well to effectively drain those acres. That effectiveness is based upon pressure, molecule size, porosity, permeability, etc. As time goes on, they may discover that they need more than one well, so down-spacing and increased density can be approved.
Horizontal wells have more recently been drilled in the shale units which are the original source rocks and can cover counties to states in size. Think lakes or seas (sorry Mike, have to switch your comment from before to the other way around). These have been traditionally spaced at 640 acres which is typically a section, but like Rick, I have seen some split 320/320 across a section boundary. The Shale Act covers these. Some are now being spaced at 1280 for a unit. Just last year, the legislature passed a law for conventional reservoirs to allow multiunit wells. The shapes for those could get interesting due to the depositional patterns of sands and limestones. That remains to be seen. This is one reason I leave my Pugh clause in my lease to be 80 acres for oil and 160 for gas unless changed by the OCC. We could see some really odd shapes coming.
You will often see different spacings at different depths for different reservoirs within the same section. Happens all the time. Another good reason to have a depth clause in your lease.
Just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas before the wonderful craziness begins! I'm so grateful for these forums and the friends I've made. Not to mention all the help I've received from everyone! Merry Christmas!
When we quit business in 1991 of Lindsey Well Service, Inc. after 35 years my hubby said some were just beginning to do some horizontal drilling around this area. Even though we had drilling and work over rigs at the time he said he didn't get much experience with the horizontal stuff. I believe he said they had it in some other parts of the country before that.
Our production checks from Continental have dropped significantly the past 3 months. We are in Sections 5,6,7 and 8 in 2N township and 4w Range. The folks at continental were no help when I called. Is there a reason production has dropped over 60% in a few months? What can I check? Thanks, Joe
j temm...this is just a stab in the dark because I don't know anything really about it but if some fracking is going on around your wells they might either have shut them in while they fracked because sometimes it can kill the current well around where the fracking is being done...or...maybe they didn't shut them in when fracking was done and it did kill some of the production. You should be able to look at your stubs in the past and the ones now to see if production is down (actually I can hardly read them but those in the know can tell all about the production from the stubs). Our Newfield checks in Sec. 16 are up this month and the Continental check in Sec. 29 (both in 2n 4w) was down but the Continental well is mainly a gas well and the Newfield wells are mainly condensate which pays the same as oil. I have seen where oil prices have been rising and the gas prices going down some since they reached $3.00 a few months ago. So it might make a difference what your wells are producing. Hope this rambling hasn't confused you more. Best Wishes!
Joe, No leases in 2 recently, but there were some in 10-1N-7W in mid 2017 by Needham Energy. They are not public and no recent pooling to go by. That area is mostly out of the Woodford play.
Jason, 24,25-1N-4W Cheyenne has a horizontal well pending. There are a couple of pending poolings so those will give some indication of offers, but nothing recently. A few years ago, the nearby offers were in the $450 3/16 range.
John, there is not current activity in 25-2S-5W . There are some old wells there.
You can go onto okcountyrecords.com and search for names that you might recognize and then go from there. You can search the OK Treasurer's office for unclaimed funds with names (and misspellings) you might know.