Publications Details
Intersecting natural fractures with a deviated wellbore: The saga of the slant hole completion test, northwestern Colorado
The US Department of Energy's Slant Hole Completion Test Well, SHCT-1, was drilled in 1990 into gas-bearing, lenticular and blanket-shaped sandstones of the Mesaverde Formation, northwestern Colorado. The reservoirs are over-pressured, with sub-microdarcy, in situ, matrix-rock permeabilities. However, a set of sub-parallel natural fractures increases the whole-reservoir permeabilities, measured by well tests, to several tens of microdarcies. The slant hole azimuth was therefore oriented to cut across the dominant fracture strike, in order to access the natural-fracture permeability and increase drainage into the wellbore.