Joe, never been involved with a horizontal well but my understanding is that the length of the laterals went big time mostly starting in the Barnett Shale with most of that mostly starting in the mid 90s. Almost a situation where the length of the laterals, the ability to more effective steer the bit, and the enormous multi stage fracks turned a matter of degree into [almost] a new game. Correct or ???
BTW, thanks for your perspective.
Nope horizontal drilling has been around for at least 20 years.
Hydrolic fracking was perfected by Mr. Mitchell in the Barnett Shale. It is quite a story for us geologists.
I can't say about the Barnett (never worked a Barnett well). The Austin Chalk laterals were starting to reach out there about then.
We were doing 1500 ft. laterals out of casing in the early '90s, with 4 1/2 inch bits, to give you an idea of the problems involved--smaller diameter drill strings affect steerability, and the tools wear out quicker. It wasn't long before we were drilling with six inch drill bits, larger mud motors, and heavier drill strings, (4-inch pipe instead of PH-8), and the laterals got longer as a result of both improved steerability and more reliable tools.
One of the big changes in there was the drill bits, which had been tri-cone bits, but were gradually replaced (with increasing rapidity) by new generation PDC (Polycrystalline Diamond Cutter) bits. Instead of having the risk of 'running the wheels off' (junk in the hole, and more often than not, an expensive sidetrack), the PDCs generally ringed out and just quit drilling.
Fewer bit trips, better MWD tools, 200 hour battery packs, and more durable mud motors have all led to longer laterals.
While the longest lateral I have personally worked was in the Bakken (roughly 12,500 ft. of lateral wellbore), I understand that some offshore efforts have eclipsed that by roughly a factor of three.
Staged fracs are a relatively recent development, but generally are done by running a liner in the lateral with swelling packers on the outside, and displacing the lateral wellbore with fresh water to swell the packers up just before the liner is 'set'. The packers swell up after the liner is in place, and then those packers are used to help isolate sections of the wellbore (outside the liner--packers are used inside the liner) to frac those sections individually, separately from the others. The process allows the more effective concentration of frac pressure, fluids, and proppants in specific areas, which in general, means that the whole lateral interval gets fracked instead of pressure, fluids, and proppants just following the paths of least resistance and leaving some parts of the formation relatively unaffected.
When laterals were short, this might not have mattered as much, but now, with two miles of lateral out there, distributing the effects more effectively means a better well, and more production in the end.
I think this is why recoveries of the estimated reserves in place have often exceeded the estimated recovery rates in initial studies.
With tremendous competition in the oil tool and service company marketplace, everyone is trying to do just a bit better than everyone else to achieve a market edge, so the hits just keep on coming. It is a high dollar game of 'can you top this', for high stakes, and result-oriented. (that means no screw-ups, too.)
Every new record is just another mark to shoot for, not laurels to sit on, because next month, someone else might be setting a new one if you don't break your own.
Some of the technologies being worked on and deployed include drilling assemblies which can be steered while rotating, near-bit measurements of formation parameters which enhance geosteering (navigational) capability, and always better bits and mud motors.
The other thing, seldom spoken of, is that horizontal drilling enables us to produce oil (and Gas) from under a much larger acreage with a smaller footprint than vertical wellbores. That includes from underneath natural obstacles such as large lakes. One ten acre drill site can permit production from an eight square mile area--or conceiveably more, with only one site, one feeder pipeline, one service road, etc.
The more environmentally friendly the industry gets, though, the more the environmentalists seem to object.