Whiting Petroleum says reducing proppant in Bakken wells, bucking trend
Aug. 20, 2018 6:40 PM ETChord Energy Corporation (CHRD)CHRDBy: Carl Surran, SA News Editor6 Comments
- While increasing the use of proppant during completions has been typical among oil producers over the past several years, Whiting Petroleum (NYSE:WLL) CEO Brad Holly says his company has managed to save on completion costs by reducing the amount of proppant while maintaining similar initial production rates.
- "New diversion techniques are allowing us to complete better performing wells while using about 30% less proppant, reducing capex by $400K/well," Holly said today during a presentation at EnerCom in Denver.
- WLL is one of the largest producers in North Dakota's Bakken Shale, where it says it has been able to reduce proppant by roughly half at the Hidden Bench play and still maintain similar rates of production.
- WLL also says it has cut the amount of drilling and completion time per well on its Bakken wells, lowering average drilling time per well from 15.5 days to 8.9 during Q2; improved completion efficiencies and lower drilling costs have reduced D&C costs from $9.1M/well in 2014 to $6.75M/well in 2018.