U.S. shale oil producers’ latest strategy to increase domestic production involves ‘re-fracing’ already established wells.
U.S. shale oil producers are working to increase output despite the left’s antagonism to increasing domestic production.
This strategy will allow producers to use the high cost of crude to support operations without making major investments in new wells and refineries while weighing future uncertainties, Reuters“You go back and find where you maybe under-completed and under-fracked in the beginning,” Catherine Oster, who manages Deon Energy’s mid-continent properties, said in the report. “We’ve made the infrastructure investment.
“As you learn about your resource, you get those technical learnings on how to take a second look at the wells,” she said.Re-fracing can be something of a booster shot for producers — a quick increase in output for smaller investment than a new well. While some producers have dabbled in re-fracturing wells in the past, the technique is winning broader adoption as technology improves, aging oilfields erode output, and companies try to do more with less.
A re-frac can be up to 40 percent cheaper than a new well, according to experts. More importantly, it can double or triple oil flows from aging wells, said Garrett Fowler, chief operating officer for ResFrac, which helps producers optimize the technique. His firm has seen about twice as many inquiries related to re-fracs compared to prior years.