FAQs

What are horizontal wells and how do they work?

In traditional vertical wells, the well can access only a small vertical section of the reservoir and the oil must draw very slowly to the well.  Some techniques (such as injecting water to ‘push’ the oil toward a well) have been devised to move the oil more quickly and readily toward the well, but the wells still only access a small vertical section of a horizontal formation. 

In a horizontal well, the drill curves forward as it goes down, producing a well shaped like a cross-section of a mixing bowl - a curve that flattens out to a horizontal line on the bottom.

Extremely long horizontal sections can be drilled, and oil can drain into them through the entire length.  The oil is then rather easily pumped to the surface.  Horizontal wells can produce up to five times the amount of oil that can be produced by vertical wells in the same amount of time.

Horizontal well technology brought a major increase to production in Saskatchewan’s declining fields in the 1990s.

Horizontal wells have several advantages to vertical wells:

Large reservoir contact area
Facilitates high production/injection rate
Allows use of fewer wells – minimizes surface disruption
Lower reservoir drawdown – reduced water and gas coning
Improved productivity and recovery
Used for producing thin hydrocarbon formations
Used for connecting vertical fractures
Used for producing low-permeability reservoirs