October 2011
Special Focus
Haynesville drilling challenges addressed through MPD
While the Haynesville shale play offers great potential, it also poses significant challenges. The play is characterized by a network of fractures and faults, as well as very low permeability and high porosity that often result in over-pressurized zones. With depths ranging from 10,000 ft to 14,000 ft, the play also features significant high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) conditions that pose obstacles to drilling. The high cost of drilling and completing wells in the Haynesville shale presents a particularly difficult challenge to total well economics. Marginal gas prices, drilling hazards, related non-productive time (NPT), and varying initial production rates and decline rates further challenge the economics faced by operators working in the region.
