ABARTA Energy "Turns the Page"

Written by Jim Watson, Director of Unconventional Operations

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

Excerpts from the lyrics of Bob Seger's "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.

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.