The acceleration of unconventional development in Argentina was punctuated earlier this year as several large international energy companies confirmed investments that will combine for $6 billion to $8 billion.

As more operators and service companies focus their efforts on the massive Vaca Muerta Shale play in Argentina’s Neuquén Basin, the introduction of new technology and completion capabilities also continues to accelerate. Miguel Gutierrez, CEO of Argentina’s state-run oil company YPF, discussed improvements regarding the profitability of hydrocarbon extraction in March during the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. According to Gutierrez, the cost to drill a horizontal well has been reduced from $17 million to $8 million per well, and the time to complete a new well has dropped from 40 to 15 days.

Packers Plus has been at the forefront of pushing completion capability boundaries in Argentina since its first system was run in the country. The initial StackFRAC multistage completion systems run in Argentina targeted the Sierras Blancas Formation nearly 10 years ago. The wells were completed in several hours, well below the several days it typically took to complete a well.

These five-stage ball-activated systems stimulated the wells using a continuous pumping operation. The costs saved from time reduction alone were as much as $500,000 per completion.

The operator of these wells also experimented with higher proppant loading and placed more than 500,000 lb of proppant in one of the wells. The increased proppant was three times the maximum amount ever placed in a horizontal well in the field at the time. The resulting production from the wells was, on average, four times higher than offset wells. One of the wells became the highest gas producer in the field.

Since those early wells the company has been involved in several early-stage unconventional projects in Argentina that set new standards for completion efficiency. In 2016 a seven-stage StackFRAC HD system was run in the Loma La Lata Field that was stimulated in just over seven hours. A typical plug-and-perf operation in the region of similar stage count, when everything goes smoothly, would take about 220 hours.

In addition to the focus on completion efficiency, operators in Argentina are looking to drill longer horizontal wells and add more stages along the lateral.

Earlier this year an operator installed and completed a 10-stage StackFRAC HD system in the province of Santa Cruz. Although nearby wells— all vertical—require several weeks to stimulate, this 10-stage completion was done in 11 hours of pumping time over two days. This completion also set several benchmarks in Santa Cruz and the Campo Indio Field, including:

■ The first horizontal well ever drilled in the field;

■ The first well completed with ball-activated technology; and

■ The highest stage count using a liner hanger packer in Argentina.

Packers Plus also has released the ePLUS Retina Monitoring System in Argentina. This system verifies surface and downhole events independent of traditional monitoring without interfering with concurrent operations. The realtime monitoring capabilities enable immediate operational adjustments to ensure a successful stimulation, which will become even more important as completion systems in Argentina continue to progress.

Later this year the company is planning to run a 31-stage StackFRAC HD system as well as introduce the TREX Limited Entry Cemented System in Argentina. The planned TREX system completion has been programmed with 27 stages using multiple ball-activated QuickPORT IV sleeves in each stage for more than 100 sleeves in the well.

With a renewed focus from several operators and increased infrastructure, this step forward from the completion of the early horizontal wells less than 10 years ago could be just the beginning of a series of milestones in development of the vast resources of the Vaca Muerta play.

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