Moderator
- Terry Palisch (Carbo Ceramics)
As the industry has pushed the envelope on drilling longer horizontal laterals with an ever-increasing number of stages, clusters, proppant, and fluid volumes in unconventionals, there has been an associated increase in the reports of well deformations and failures leading to partial or complete restrictions in the lateral. Early reports suggested these might be limited to select unconventional plays; however, it now appears that most, if not all, unconventional plays experience these issues. There are many potential contributing causes for this phenomenon—often rooted in the completion design, the well design, or the geomechanics of the play— but these deformations and failures present increasing challenges to the industry including lost production, inoperable wells, and the inability to work in some or all of the lateral. While there is much work to be done to achieve remediation and/or mitigation of the well deformations and failures seen in unconventionals, this panel will focus on the extent of the challenge, potential causes, and potential efforts to address this issue. In addition, the goal of the panel is to provide a forum for open discussion on the topic from all attendees.