Description
Black Hills Exploration and Production has drilled and completed a number of 8,000 to 10,000 foot horizontal wells in the Niobrara Formation in the Piceance Basin in Colorado. The Niobrara Formation in the Piceance Basin is a 1,200 foot thick, low permeability, gas-producing pay-zone with complex rock properties. The exploration program had three major items to address: the optimal zone in which to land the horizontal wells; the proper orientation of the horizontal wellbore in that zone; and how to complete the horizontal wells effectively. The evaluation included a combination of diagnostics such as pilot well data, microseismic and micro-deformation mapping, spectroscopy logs, borehole image logs, fracture modeling, DFITs, multi-well production logs and production diagnostics.