> As I understand it shale formations holding petroleum are often 500 to 1000 feet down.
So I just recently left a job doing downhole tool design and everything I was hearing was high temperature, high pressure, high shock & vibe. I saw plenty of well plans that were 10k feet down and then 15k feet sideways, and little else.
I'm not saying that other things can't exist, but the cookie-cutter wells that drillers were doing as of a year or two ago were largely down deep and long sideways.
Yeah, sadly there doesn't seem to be a free and publicly available body of data we can get a true picture from. It would be nice to have a list of all horizontal wells drilled in the last 5 years with target depths and lengths, but I doubt that will ever be available.
I will say this: I spent years reading geological logs looking for bypass pay and I know there's plenty work being done or to be done in the depth range I mentioned. So in my mind the worry is real and people do need to get their heads wrapped around it.
Each state offers a free or small fee service where you can view detailed well information. I work at a company that aggregates that information.
There are 475 oil and gas drilling rigs running in the US today. The shallowest well is permitted to 1600 feet. The next shallowest is 2600 feet. In all, only fourteen of these actively drilling wells are permitted to depths shallower than 5000 feet.
Which does not surprise me. Under the current economic conditions only the most prolific wells are going to be drilling. That's why I suggested the last 5 years. Also, I eluded to the work that is "to be done". So when the low hanging fruit is taken then the other opportunities will show a broader range of depths.
All of this ignores the salient point I've made - That the risk is very real. If not from wells drilled today then from past or future drilling.
Note I'm not suggesting that people should freak out, but I am suggesting that industry players are spending too much time downplaying the risks and not taking a serious look.
So I just recently left a job doing downhole tool design and everything I was hearing was high temperature, high pressure, high shock & vibe. I saw plenty of well plans that were 10k feet down and then 15k feet sideways, and little else.
I'm not saying that other things can't exist, but the cookie-cutter wells that drillers were doing as of a year or two ago were largely down deep and long sideways.