Abstract
The current focus of many US land drilling programs is on major unconventional gas shale plays. In this paper, the authors will discuss the challenges posed by and effective solutions developed for wells drilled in one of these plays: the Marcellus Shale. In response to the economic, real-estate, water disposal, and regulatory challenges the Marcellus Shale presents, multiwell pads have become a common approach. Historically, the Marcellus and Appalachian Basin has been developed using inexpensive, vertical wells drilled using the latest technologies and techniques. While some of these options are still viable, changing conditions make proper surveying and anticollision monitoring imperative. The pad design, surveying, preplanning, and execution of successful multiwell pad drilling require extensive collaboration between service providers and operators, a process that will be addressed in this paper.
