DRILLING & COMPLETION TECH DIGEST • DEPARTMENTS
Surge Energy uses Latshaw Rig 10 to drill 18,325-ft lateral in Permian in 12.5 days
Four years ago, Surge Energy worked
with Latshaw Drilling and Pro Directional
to drill what it said was the longest known
lateral in the Permian Basin at the time, at
17,935 ft. Now, the companies have exceed-
ed that lateral distance in another Permian
well. In Q4 2023, the companies drilled the
Succubus-Rougarou 24-37 7AH well in the
Wolfcamp A play in Borden County, Texas,
with a total horizontal displacement of
18,325 ft.
The well, which was drilled by Latshaw
Drilling’s Rig 10, was executed in 12.5 days
from surface to its total measured depth of
24,879 ft. This marked a six-day reduction
in drilling time from the 2019 well, where
the total measured depth of 24,592 ft was
reached in 18 days.
This drop in time was primarily enabled
by the elimination of a planned trip, said
Jeremy Christopherson, Drilling Manager
at Surge Energy. The 2019 well featured
a planned trip at 15,000-ft vertical sec-
tion because the operator was unsure if
the bottomhole assembly (BHA) could last
beyond that distance. The 18,325 -ft lateral
in the 2023 well was drilled in one conven-
tional directional BHA run – this marked a
company record for Pro Directional for the
longest lateral drilled in a single run with
motor and MWD.
“These rigs can only rack back so much
pipe in the derrick, and with the well in
Compared with a previous well with a 17,935-ft lateral that was drilled in 18 days, a
new well with an 18,325-ft lateral has been drilled by Latshaw Rig 10 in just 12.5 days.
This time reduction was primarily enabled by eliminating a planned trip at 15,000 ft.
2019, we felt that a 15,000-ft run in the lat-
eral was probably all the motor could take,
and we should trip and have a planned
trip to change out the bit and the motor,”
Mr Christopherson said. “We ended up
tripping back in, and it takes a long time to
round-trip from that depth. With the well
we just drilled, we just decided to keep
drilling with the BHA.”
Christopherson said. The total vertical
and counterclockwise to get weight on bit
depths (TVD) for wells drilled in the com-
during sliding operations to work slack-off
pany’s Midland acreage since entering the
weight down to the bit.
region in 2016 have ranged between 5,500
The operator is currently running three
and 8,100 ft. The 2023 well had a total ver-
rigs in its Midland Basin acreage – in addi-
tical depth 6,794 ft.
tion to Latshaw Rig 10, it’s also operating
“When we started drilling out there,
Latshaw Rigs 18 and 20 in Howard County.
we were drilling a lot of 1.5-mile, 2-mile
“I find Latshaw very easy to work with,”
laterals, and we slowly stepped out to
he said. “They have a rig type that’s very
drill longer and longer laterals. But it’s
suitable for our style of drilling, particular-
an area with very shallow TVDs. One of
ly being able to go back on existing pads.
the things that makes these longer later-
The rigs move quickly, and the company
als more challenging is that, when you’re
has really good hands . They’re the old-
Surge Energy holds more than 100,000
looking at around 6,000 ft of total vertical
school farm boys who can fix everything
net acres in the Midland Basin, with
depth, we might not have enough weight
with a wrench. You don’t have to get a
its core acreage located in Borden and
to push 18,000 ft of pipe to TD the well,” Mr
computer tech to fix a lot of stuff, and that
Howard counties. The acreage presents
Christopherson said. To address this, the
works really well for us.”
major drilling challenges because the res-
operator used standard friction reduction
ervoirs are located in shallow depths, Mr
tools and rocked the drill pipe clockwise
Drilling of the most recent well uti-
lized conventional mud motor and mea-
surement-while-drilling (MWD) technol-
ogy, and it was drilled 100% in zone. Surge
Energy also reported no lost time due to
downhole dysfunctions.
The well is expected to be completed and
brought online in the first half of 2024. DC
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