How To Frac A Modern Shale Well And Boost Capital Efficiency

Forbes

21-05-2025

Multiple wells in Kansas
To many, it's still a surprise just how big a modern frac job is, or more correctly 40-50 separate frac jobs in a single horizontal well. First, the total volume of water that is injected into a 2-mile horizontal is about 20 million gallons. How much is this? If all this water were poured into a container that surrounds the grassed area of a football stadium, the water would rise about 40 feet.
How much proppant is pumped down there to prop and keep the created fracture network open to later flow of oil and gas? About 20 million pounds, or enough to fill 90 railway shipping containers. These numbers are for just one horizontal well.
The shale revolution quickly discovered that two wells could be fracked at the same time, and save costs. One way is to use one set of pumps and one high pressure manifold, but alternate the injection between two wells—this was called a Zipper frac. Another option was to use two sets of pumps and two pressure manifolds to simultaneously pump fracs in two wells—called a Simulfrac. This made fracking still more efficient although not increasing cost savings as much as a Zipper frac.
A logical extension has been reported by Ovintiv, whose predecessor was Encana. A Trimulfrac is when three wells are fracked simultaneously. The logistics are more complicated with three high-pressure manifolds that inject into three wells at the same time. But the result is even lower costs, and increased capital efficiency.
To accommodate this, you need more frac pumps. As reported, a typical Trimulfrac had 12 electric pumps and 6 diesel pumps, compared with a Zipper frac of 8-10 electric pumps. Also needed is access to a larger reliable water supply each day. This can be a problem in the Permian basin semi-deserts of West Texas and New Mexico.
Also required is more sand proppant, and Ovintiv have deployed huge piles of wet sand on site. The daily sand usage went up from 5 million pounds/day for each Zipper frac to 13 million pounds/day for a Trimulfrac.
Zipper fracs were used by Ovintiv in the period 2017-2019. In 2020 – 2022, about 80% of fracs were Simulfracs. But in 2023, 60% were Simulfracs and 40% were Trimulfracs.
An obvious benefit is greater footage fracked each day, and a typical number reported was 4,000 ft/day. Compare this with 1500–1800 ft/day for older Zipper fracs in 2017-2019. With this new Trimulfrac momentum, fracking can keep pace with 4-5 drilling rigs.
The synergism means less fuel consumed, and less friction reducer needed to lower frac pumping pressure. The well completions are more efficient as shown by costs. The average cost savings total up to $125,000/well compared with Simulfrac, and $525,000/well compared with Zipper frac.
According to Ovintiv, there has been no frac interference by offset fracs. And no degradation of well productivity due to simultaneous fracking. They claim their technology leads to a consistent volume of stimulated reservoir rock based on high cluster efficiency due to effective perforating practice.
A new analysis by Energy Information Administration (EIA) argues that Trimulfracs are the new norm. They identified simultaneous well completions in their data set 'by grouping wells located within 50 ft of each other and analyzing overlapping start and end dates for completions, an indicator that the wells were fractured concurrently.' EIA found that in 2014 the average number of horizontal wells completed at the same time was 1.5, but has risen to 3 in 2024.
The 1.5 ratio in 2014 suggests a mix of single-well fracs and Zipper fracs. In the figure, a blip above a ratio of 3 may indicate a few Quadfracs have been added to the data: fracking four wells at the same time.
Multiple wells fracked at each location.
Additional information supports this picture. Matador Resources found success in 2024 using Trimulfracs: a 25% reduction in completion time and cost savings above $1 million compared with Simulfracs and Zipper fracs. Chevron plan to use Trimulfracs on half of their Permian wells in 2025. Chevron can bring each well to production in 25% less time which reduces costs by 12% for each well.
Chevron got into Trimulfracs after March 2024 and used the technique on 20% of its wells in 2024. In 2025, the company want to use Trimulfracs on 50%--60% of its wells in the Permian. The company noted they need 60% more frac water and frac sand each day to carry this out. On some days the sand was brought in by 10 trucks every hour to achieve this.
Electric fracking fleets have advantages over traditional diesel pumpers. They can reduce logistics and costs by using local power from the grid, or from onsite natural gas to drive the gas turbines. Power is easier to manage, and automation sensor and software can be installed, as Halliburton have demonstrated.
For their Trimulfracs, Chevron uses mostly electric pumps which consume 50% more power each day than fracking only one well each time.
For operators still concerned about reaching net-zero emissions, renewable power exists, and at some point may become available to well sites, in Texas and New Mexico.
A common industry feeling about Donald Trump's mantra 'drill, baby, drill' is that 'We've been there and done that.' It came to a head in 2018, the year of the fracker, when expanding the number of shale wells was top priority. But free cash flow, profits, and investments in oil and gas industry dwindled until companies realized they had to boost capital efficiency to turn this around.
Boosting capital efficiency, and return on investment, have remained strong goals since 2018, and general opinion is this will continue despite the Trump administration's mantra to accelerate drilling.