How Our Projects Work
Our project portfolio for 2020 has entirely consisted of shallow, vertical oil wells in Seminole County, Oklahoma. These wells have a relatively short completion schedule and share the same primary formations. Below, you’ll see the typical progression for one of these wells, including everything from constructing a well pad to preparing the wells for oil & gas production.
Location
Choosing a drilling location can involve several factors, including but not limited to the production history of the surrounding land, the proximity to other producing wells, and results from seismic imaging. One of our primary reasons for choosing to drill in Seminole, Oklahoma was our close proximity to currently producing wells. This lease sits in a historic oil producing region and our wells are considered proved undeveloped reserves (or PUDs). There are several producing wells in close proximity to ours, targeting the same primary oil formations. This gave us a great deal of confidence when determining our drilling strategy.
The following image depicts one of the “offset” wells, the Oddfellows A1, which helped us decide whether to drill in Oklahoma during our due diligence process. This well has been in production since December 2017 and is only a short walk from our first well in Oklahoma, the ASE 1.
Rig & Pad Construction
After a drilling location has been determined, the next step is to construct a drilling pad and transport and assemble the rig. Drilling rigs contain several components including but not limited to the mast, which is the tall, vertical structure, the top drive, which rotates the drill bit, and the doghouse, which serves as an office or storage area. Our particular location in Oklahoma sees significant amounts of rainfall each year causing mobility issues for our operating team. This required us to construct a weather-resistant road allowing our team to move heavy machinery in and out of the drilling site in adverse weather conditions.
In the adjacent image you will see our first well in Oklahoma, the ASE 1. The pictured rig drilled this well to its target depth of 4,329′ in April 2020.
Drilling Phase
Once the drilling pad and road are complete and the rig has been moved on-site and assembled, the next step is drilling the well. This phase can be relatively short if the wells are shallow, or it can be a fairly long process, which is typical of larger wells and fracked wells. The adjacent image depicts our second well in Oklahoma, the ASE 2. This shallow, vertical well was drilled fairly quickly. This well was approved for drilling in February 2020 and was drilled to its target depth of approximately 4,300′ by June of the same year. Once drilling is complete, the rig is moved off-site, and the completion rig is brought in and assembled.
Completion Phase
While drilling the well may seem like the final step, there is still significant work to be done. A drilled well is little more than a hole piercing into a subsurface oil formation. Meticulous work must be completed to ensure that the well bore doesn’t collapse. The completion process prepares the well for production by “casing” the well, which is the process of inserting a steel pipe into the well bore to protect it from intrusion by water or sand. The next step involves pouring cement to fill the gap between the outside of the casing and the well bore, permanently holding the casing in place. Using explosives, the casing and cement is then perforated, allowing hydrocarbons to flow into the well bore. Teams will then install a “production tree” on the surface, which acts as the access point for any produced hydrocarbons.
Production Phase
The final step following completion is the production phase. This typically involves the installation of a pumpjack and requires testing and fine tuning to optimize flow rates. The adjacent image depicts our completed ASE 1 well. The pumpjack extracts oil via the attached production tree and syphons it to holding tanks (as seen in the image) to be picked-up and trucked away, while natural gas is directed to our pipeline.
