2018 Sept Holiday Pause vs 2017 No Pause
It's a fair question to ask why the pause during the feasts this year when one was not announced last year while drilling.
First, the drilling most likely did stop in 2017 on specific feast days in addition to weekly Shabbat. But, a month-long pause was not announced.
Let's consider the operations going on last year versus this year. In 2017 the hole was being drilled which only required one tool to be in the hole -- the drill bit. It was a risk to stop for each Shabbat by having to raise the bit up into the lowest level of casing, then go back down to drill again. But, this complexity due to individual holidays is nothing like when testing.
Testing requires a sequence of different tools to go down hole and perform a task. Some are conducive to pauses between operations and some are not. The sequence is probably something like:
0. Fill hole with drilling fluid if not already there.
1. Run in with perf gun on a wireline, shoot, then run out. Maybe run in with camera to validate perf. Maybe make several runs depending on height of zone to perf and gun length.
2. Trip in with packer on pipe and set seal to isolate lower zones already perfed. Maybe set two packers with the 2nd above the new perf location, depending if the drilling fluid or 2nd packer will force the acid into the formation instead of allowing it to rise inside the casing.
3. Inject acid into pipe and wait a few days. Packer has to hold under pressure, heat, and acid. Water and high levels of CO2 will be produced from the acid reacting with the rock.
4. Trip out with packer(s).
5. Trip in and out with swabb several times. Remove drilling fluid if present, then completion fluids, and suction prime the formation fluids to flow.
6. Measure oil/water/gas flow at surface.
7. Repeat
This sequence of operations is very difficult to plan and execute when some weeks 6 days can be worked, others 4, others 3, etc. It's not as easy as raising a drill bit a few hundred meters, then going back down again. As conditions are observed in the well, new steps may be added, deleted, modified, etc.
So, while I am disappointed that knowing results will be delayed because testing is not taking place, it's also reasonable not to test during the feast season due to the short and irregular work weeks.
If ranking the ease of stopping-starting operations for feasts and Shabbat, I would have to guess it goes something like this:
1. Most difficult - 2018 - testing
2. Median difficult - 2017 - drilling
3. Least difficult - 2019 - producing
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