Responsible Production and Horizontal Drilling

The combination of advanced hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies has led to resurgence in the domestic production of natural gas and oil.

These technologies have allowed U.S. oil and gas companies to economically produce natural gas from shale: dense geological formations that are home to vast domestic supplies of natural gas. They also are providing access to domestic supplies of oil once thought too expensive to produce.

This revitalization of the U.S. oil and gas industry is creating jobs for Americans and helping reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign energy.

Horizontal drilling is the process of drilling a curved well in order to reach a target that is not directly beneath the drill site. The lateral lengths of horizontal wells are typically thousands of feet. This technology is critical to cost effectively producing oil and gas from low porosity/low permeable formations such as shale because horizontal drilling exposes more of the productive pipe to the shale formation.

Horizontal drilling has the added benefit of minimizing the environmental footprint of oil and gas drilling operations. By drilling horizontally for a mile or more deep underground, Energen and other operators access substantially more reserves across a broader area with one well than they can with multiple traditional vertical wells. This translates into reduced land usage at the surface, less waste and reduced air emissions.