Member Info for 3standsoffbottom

The oil has been proved I think. The news we now need is the sustainability of the flow. That news is a few months down the road. I for one am prepared to wait.

The radius of the bend from vertical to horizontal is such that tubing, casing and drill pipe can bend/flex around the corner. It is not like a sudden right angle, the change in direction will happen (at a guess) over several thousand feet.
The tubing will be pulled when the well is killed. This is done by circulating out all hydro carbons and replacing the contents of the hole with fluid heavy enough to provide enough of an over pressure (head) to the formation pressure. The work over rig will run drill pipe, circulate the sand out then rerun the production tubing. Or something like that.

So whilst I have worked in the oil patch, it was not a full career and was back in the 70’s and 80’s, all offshore mainly floaters. I worked on the Beryl A, each rig drilled something like 10 wells. They just skidded the rig. You know this of course. I don’t see why similar cannot be done on land. MAmaris worked land rigs maybe he could comment.

200 barrels of oil per 4000 lateral would be 500 per 10,000 ft lateral (never mind condensate etc). 4 wells (could be more why not) per pad, 2000 bpd (never mind condensate etc). Drill costs would be less per well (rig up rig down etc). Sure, depends on sustained flow rates, but as yet we don’t have accurate flow figures until work over done. Just saying.

No doubt the well is now flowing hydrocarbons. How much is the 64 thousand dollar question of course. We all want the breakout RNS, I sort of worry that maybe, half the lateral remains blocked off with sand and the figures, when published, whilst good, will not ignite the share price, as it will not be perceived as a gusher. Glass half empty moment, happy to wait and if required eat my hat.

To be fair I don’t think he is saying this is what Pantheon have done. I have never seen what he is describing other than dropping balls down the pipe. I am more running a thorny bush down the hole, with a tamper made up by the welder, then chucking pebbles after it followed by dropping cement on top and hope it holds. .

So remember the frak fluid has to be trucked off site. The days of dumping it in the burn are long gone. Having said that am excited as everyone else.

Ask yourself this, why is the sand coming back, because it’s flowing like a train. The well needs some work, it might even need fracking again, I am confident we have a secure borehole into the reservoir and those good old boys (and not so old) are on top of it.

I think if it is a flare then highly likely to be gas, thats what the permit specified. Everything else will have to be trucked off site. Back in the day we would fill the hole up with diesel and it would get burned off as the well flowed. I think that in an environmentally sensitive area such as here, this would probably not be allowed, and if it was it would be covered in the permit. I think the permit only allows for gas flare off? I suspect that the completion fluid and fracking fluid are presently going through the separator, hopefully followed by oil, if not already doing so. If they are flaring it has to be news soon!

First off I never did anything like this when I was in the business. I think they will drill out all the way and flow test the lot. For two reasons, they can measure the returns against what they pumped in and two they can check the flow at various points in the well bore when the well is flowing. At least you could in a vertical or near vertical well.

Normally you would have a well(s) that is used to inject gas /water into the formation not possible at the moment. Gas lift is something different

I suspect what has happened is that they think they are near the end game. They probably been thinking we need some financial advice. If they employed an FA that person will have looked at their position as a simple risk reward scenario and said so how rich do you want/need to be. Maybe spread the risk a little, I mean that is what we should all be doing, not having all your eggs in one basket. If I was in their shoes I would not want to be in the position where it's all on black, if it's red I'm broke if it's black I got more money than I can spend. Maybe in my 20's or 30's not when you are 70. I think they have probably just done something eminently sensible, nervous private investors see 2+2 = 5.

Chiksan to spell right, industry standard, two men and a sledge hammer to rig up and rig down, though a tugger is useful. Able to take high pressures.

The big take away for me was the trouble free lateral drill and completion. You got a sense of the relief in the RNS, plus their stated plan of not pushing their luck with length pre-drill.
Assuming all is good with the long term flow, then this lateral completion really de-risks all the future laterals. Some might remember the attempt to kick off in Texas, the rock was so abrasive it wore out the diamond bit in a matter of feet. There are other potential issues such as keyholes and bore collapse. I guess Alkaid is lateral friendly rock.

I would just add to Scott's quote from Telemachus, think Deepwater Horizon on the Artic Tundra, our shares would be worthless. I for one am quite happy they stopped drilling when they did.

Initial flow rates are important but the key will be flow 6 month later. So all being well it will be next year that we really understand what we have and confirmation of commerciality.
Example initial flow rate 1000 bpd, one week later 50 bpd versus initial 1000 bpd 6 months later 800 bpd, figures used are just random.

It has been explained well previously, if I remember correctly by cbaron and Scot. In fact look at the post preceding yours, one word Farallon debt for equity, ok 4 words.

I think the well flowing is a nailed on certainty. Rate is the key question. The big risk is the mechanics of the directional drill.

It absolutely has to be, compare that video with the one from the winter drill and that was on a nice day! I worked in the North Sea in the 70's and 80's, I have stories that people just don't believe, in fact I look back and wonder, I was young, fit, going to live forever and the only things I thought about was girls, beer and motorbikes, I survived more or less intact, a few crushed digits. Different game these days, to be fair that is a good thing.

To be clear they did the flow test later when the well was revisited.