Interesting...and certainly contradicts what I have previously read. But I don’t think anyone is claiming the tight rock is magically made more porous than sandstone by fracking. Rather, the physical act of effectively breaking the rock in two, and not allowing the pieces to come back together, due to the fracking sand, creates large gaps between pieces of rock. And the theory is these propped open gaps will behave differently than porous rock.
Time will tell...maybe. It may not even get to the point where wells are shut down.
Who knows.
But putting that aside, don’t fracked wells have a much steeper decline on the production curve? That alone makes a fracked well a much shorter play, and easier to react to price changes than a conventional well.
Steep initial decline
That alone makes a fracked well a much shorter play,
But they should produce for decades.
and easier to react to price changes than a conventional well.
The tight formations like shale with the long horizontals and many multi-stage hyrdo-fracs are very expensive compared to traditional wells. It is tough to spend $8 million putting in a well then shutting down your cash flow to pay off the money used to get to that point.
By the way, "fracked well" is a poor term. Traditional type plays are often hydro frac'd as well. Most wells today will be hydro frac'd in their lifetime.