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Thanks Joe.

I seem to remember in Alaska some wells having laterals added later at a different field (different depth). Not the same as the original discussion in this thread.

I have worked wells which added a lateral to an existing horizontal well. We drilled at 90 degrees to the original lateral's azimuth, in a carbonate. (Tioga Madison Unit, ND). The result was that we significantly improved production, proving the reservoir was anisotropic in terms of permeability.

The early Elm Coulee Field (MT, Bakken) wells (single laterals) quickly gave way to two and three lateral wellbores, either open-hole sidetracked from the first lateral in the Bakken, or with windows cut in the casing and redrilling the curve to the pay and drilling a lateral from there.

Those wells were on a 640 acre spacing, generally (one section, one mile square), and that was an effort to enhance production.

As technique improved, later wells in North Dakota in the Bakken were drilled on 1280 acre spacings (2 miles by 1 mile) and parallel wells running the length of those spacings from one pad have proven to be a superior arrangement.