Driven by increased production rewards, multiple operators in the United States have been improving their unconventional wells by increasing lateral length. Several 鈥渟uperlaterals鈥� with lengths greater than 23,000 ft have been drilled successfully in several US basins. The complete paper describes the technical challenges faced in drilling and running casing in superlaterals and the difficulties in implementing them in the Vaca Muerta unconventional play.
Introduction
In 2012鈥�2015, many operators began to drill longer laterals. Because production did not appear to decline with increasing lateral length, one operator drilled 11 superlaterals in 2017 in the Utica shale, reporting critical cost reductions and a greater recovery per foot.
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