Read much more about how Consol is trying to increase its efficiency here.Drilling vertically through the shale isn’t cost-efficient because the quantity of oil and gas retrieved would be minimal.But drilling across the shale formation is.The trick is hitting that “pay zone” – that rich spot of either the Marcellus and Utica shale formations – and drilling across the length of the rock. Consol is using longer laterals and shorter fracturing stages to great effect, Boggs says.In Westmoreland County, Boggs gestures toward a rig preparing to drill a second horizontal well at the Mamont South pad that’s 8,000 feet in length. He says Consol is pioneering the use of longer extensions and innovative completion methods. A single well from this pad could net an estimated ultimate recovery – that is, the amount of gas produced over the life of the well – of between 10 billion and 15 billion cubic feet.“It has a lot to do with completion design,” Boggs says, and how the well is hydraulically fractured.Hydraulic fracturing injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into a well to free up oil and gas hydrocarbons tightly held in the shale. Once the well is drilled, it is “fracked” or perforated in stages.
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