Chesapeake Innovates New Way to Move Utica Rigs Twice as Fast

Chesapeake Energy publishes a quarterly newsletter (more like a magazine) called The Play. The latest issue, Winter 2013 (released earlier this year, full issue embedded below) contains two interesting and important stories that relate to the Utica Shale. The feature story starting on page 3, “Poised for Success,” focuses on Chesapeake’s Ohio Utica Shale program. The article says Chessy’s previously drilled Utica wells should be online starting in February since new pipelines to transport liquids for processing have recently been installed. The article also says Chessy expects they will eventually drill around 13,000 wells in the Ohio Utica on their 1.6 million leased acres.

Perhaps just as interesting as the Utica Shale story is the next story, “Moving On – The Logistics: The Peake Move Process.” Chessy currently operates 14 rigs in the Ohio Utica and plans to expand it to 17 this year. They’ve innovated a way to reduce the time it takes to move a drilling rig from 7.78 days to 3.67 days–more than 50% reduction in move time. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. They move rigs every few weeks, and each day they shave from the process saves them $42,000 and means they can drill more wells per year. The faster moves come from new technology and new methods of doing the moving.

Check out the full Winter 2013 issue of The Play: