A record? Ohio well’s horizontal leg stretches 19,300 feet

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Eclipse Resources Corporation successfully drilled its newest record-setting “super-lateral” well, the Great Scott 3H. The Ohio well had a total measured depth of 27,400 feet and lateral extension of 19,300 feet in less than 17 days.

The well, located in Guernsey County’s Millwood Township, is possibly the world’s longest onshore lateral ever drilled, according to Benjamin W. Hulburt, Eclipse chairman, president and CEO, and is almost 1,000 feet longer than the previous record held by the company’s Purple Hayes well.

“We are currently drilling a direct offset to this well with a similar planned lateral extension,” Hulburt said in a prepared statement May 4. He expects these wells will be completed late in the third quarter of this year.

First quarter

The company also released its first quarter results May 4, reporting average net daily production was 290.0 million cubic feet of gas equivalent (MMcfe) per day.  Net income for the first quarter of 2017 was $26.8 million.

The company also completed drilling its first of two planned Marcellus Shale condensate wells with a lateral extension of 10,000 feet, and finished operations on a seven-well dry gas Utica pad, testing several new “Gen4” completion techniques — increased proppant levels, diversion chemicals and engineered frack stages.

In its report, the company updated its full year production forecast, now expected to be an average daily production between 315 and 320 MMcfe per day. However, Hulburt said they will be taking several producing wells offline to focus on production from these new “Gen4” wells at the end of the second quarter.

Hulburt said the company’s second rig started drilling at the end of the first quarter 2017 and there is now a rig focused on its Utica condensate area.