Written by Jim Watson, Director of Unconventional Operations
Out there in the spotlight
Out there in the spotlight
You’re a million miles away
Every ounce of energy
You try to give away
As the sweat pours out your body
Like the music that you play
Here I am
On the road again
There I am
Up on the stage
Here I go
Playin’ star again
There I go
Turn the page
On April 6, 2015, ABARTA Energy “Turned the Page” on its
history. This marked the day that we
became a horizontal operator, with spudding of the George Spriggs Unit H-1 in Johnson
County, Kentucky.
Using ABARTA Energy’s Rig #1 (RD-20) we spud the G. Spriggs
Unit H-1 at 0630 hrs. By the time the sun
rose the next morning, the Kentucky rig crew had drilled and cemented two sets of casing! Two days later we reached total depth on the
vertical portion of the well and were running electric logs (eLogs). The logs helped AOG’s Geologist, Junior Jenkins,
determine the exact land point (optimal production zone) for the horizontal
portion.
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| Highlands Drilling Rig #6 |
On April 19, 2015 we began drilling with Highlands Drilling
LLC Rig #6 (SpeedStar 185 class). This rig is capable of drilling 8,000’
straight down or, depending on true vertical depth (TVD), it can drill a well
that is 1,000’ deep with a horizontal leg of 6,000’.
April 28, 2015 was the day that we reached our TD (total
depth) of 3,884’. We tripped out of the
hole with our drill string and picked up a set of reamers. Reamers are like “sandpaper” for the
wellbore. They smooth out any ledges and
flatten (to a degree) curves or drops that were created while drilling. The objective of reaming is to have as smooth
a well bore as possible in which to run our packer system. The packers isolate a stage (every 150 – 200’) that will be
completed. In between every packer is a
frac port (sliding sleeve). During the
frac job, different size balls are dropped to actuate the port. The ball lands in a specifically sized seat,
the pumping company pressures up on the ball once it is seated and shears brass
pins that hold it closed. Once the port
shifts open, the formation between the two packers is exposed and we then pump
the next stage in the treatment. This
process goes on until all zones/ stages have been completed.
The completion job (frac job) on the Spriggs Unit H-1 began
and ended on May 19, 2015. We pumped a
total of 638,000 pounds of sand in 416,000 gals of fluid in 16 total stages.
Following the frac job, we drilled out the balls and seats
and installed tubing, pump and rods with the ABARTA Energy service rig. On June 9, 2015, 65 days after we spud the
well, we had our first production.
My hat goes off to everyone involved with this project. We literally went from a stop to 100+ MPH in
a matter of days. Special thanks to the
guys out of our Kentucky operation. They
put in the very long hours in inhospitable weather and got it done. It’s truly an honor to work with these
individuals.
So to bring it full circle, ABARTA Energy really has “turned the page” on its history. We are in the spotlight and giving every ounce of energy we have to this project and yes, the sweat did pour out of our bodies. We are on the stage, not only the ABARTA stage but also the Kentucky stage as well. Everyone involved were the stars and with that, we “turn the page” and begin writing our new “horizontal” history.
