COLUMBUS, OH -- Marcellus oil production, and predominantly gas production continues to grow at a blistering pace. However,  operators are now faced with a new conundrum  - whether to pursue liquid rich wells or find ways to make gas wells economic.

The current gas price situation in the US means Marcellus operators need to be ahead of the game by developing highly advanced techniques for  making marginal wells economic  and developing completions strategies for optimizing liquid recovery. Operators are now actively making progress in reducing cluster spacing and optimizing stage and lateral lengths in liquid rich reservoirs to ensure incremental cost and performance gains. Due to the increasing number of trials measuring changes in such variables, the industry at large is now at a point where findings and information sharing could lead to significant commercial gains.

The liquid rich Utica is arguably an easy win for Marcellus operators and many are already seeing significant production successes due to the delivery of optimal completions techniques. However, the increase in near wellbore stimulation and lateral lengths, in the dense, typically higher-pressured, Utica wells, present their own cost challenges. These include ensuring the availability and development of higher PSI rated equipment, developing extended lateral completions strategies and creating frac designs suitable for high pressure wells; challenges that are often easily overcome by hearing what others have already failed and succeeded at.


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