Economic Performance Assessments of Multi-Well Pad Drilling Technology in the Fuling Shale Gas Field

The number of wells deployed on a specific work mode of one multi-well pad may directly determine economic performance of multi-well pad drilling technology. Currently, there is no model available for assessment of the economic performance of the technology. In this paper, the impact of the "multi-well pad drilling" operations on engineering costs related to pre-drill, drilling, fracturing and other operations were analyzed. In addition, models to assess economic performances of the drilling technology were established with the reduction in overall cost of project as the objective function. Calculations and analyses were also performed by using field data of the shale gas field in the Fuling Area. Research results showed the calculation results coincided well with field data. It was determined that the optimal quantity of wells deployed on each "multi-well pad drilling" platform in Fuling Area was 4-8 wells. For platforms deployed for development of shale gas in deep formations with over 10 wells, the stream-lined "multi-well pad drilling" platform with two rigs of "Model 30+Model 70" should be considered as the optimal work mode. Research results showed the newly proposed techniques for assessing and analyzing economic performances of the "multi-well pad drilling", together with resulting optimal number of wells deployed on such platform and corresponding work modes might provide the necessary guidelines for the overall deployment and design of multi-well pad drilling technology.