Horizontal drilling developments

The advantages of horizontal drilling are discussed. Use of horizontal drilling has climbed in the past half decade as technology and familiarity offset higher costs with higher production rates and greater recoveries from new and existing wells. In essence, all types of horizontal wells expose a larger section of the reservoir to the wellbore with a resulting increase in flow rates. (A horizontal well may also be drilled to provide coning control or to intersect vertical fractures.) Thus, drilling horizontally, both onshore and offshore, reduces the number of wells necessary to develop a field.