As horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology have evolved, new hydrocarbon plays or trends have developed in North American oilfields. The new technology has allowed operators to develop hydrocarbon formations economically that were uneconomic with older technology. Implementing the new technology to older fields once considered not profitable may revitalize these resource plays. The primary target of this research is determining whether new technology in a horizontal Caney Shale well will make the formation economically feasible to develop. Previous developments in the Caney Shale proved that hydrocarbons were present, but the older technology did not make the reservoir commercially viable under normal commodity price environments. To achieve this goal, GOHFER software was utilized to match the production profile of the historic development, then using the same reservoir parameters, a new well design, completion design and production profile was modeled. This model was then compared against a new production profile ratio method that uses analog formations and their production profiles to verify the results. Finally, the model was matched against a field well that was developed using new technology. After the production evaluation, the wells’ capital costs for development and operation were evaluated and run through OSU’s in-house economic software to confirm a single well was economically viable. Then a well spacing analysis was conducted to create a development plan. This development plan included different tiers of production to provide a conservative approach to net asset valuation. This net asset valuation was then used to determine the acreage value for the Caney play.
Clark Matthieu Cunningham (Fri,) studied this question.