Typically, a well is drilled and then they run casing the entire depth of the well bore.
This allows you to isolate formations, and keep incompatible oils from commingling. It isolates your production from formations with a lot of water.
They also run surface casing from the surface down a predetermined number of feet to isolate the fresh water table from anything that you might produce (oil, water, gas, etc.).
This appears to be where AMEP stopped. They've drilled the well, and run the casing. At that point, they probably hooked some valves up to shut-in the casing. They've probably installed a pressure gauge to monitor the shut-in pressure of the casing.
Typically wells are shut in at this stage because they are waiting on something. Could be they are waiting on surface equipment to be set, or pipeline infrastructure to be set, or a frac truck...
At this point, AMEP will most likely perforate the casing at the depth of the formation they want to produce from. They will bring in a crew that will run a line and an explosive charge (or multiple charges depending on how they want to perforate), which for the laymen, ends up poking holes in the casing to let oil seep in from the formation to the casing.
After they've perforated, they will probably give the formation a frac job, which involves forcing an abrasive through the perforations in the casing at high pressure. This abrasive, usually some kind of sand, is like sandpaper that forces small cracks (fractures) in the formation to allow the oil and gas to seep into the casing.
There is a lot more to this step, but that's the jist of it all.
On good wells, you will get enough pressure to produce from the casing for a while. They'll hook the casing right up the sales meter and sell gas straight from the casing.
Once the pressure drops, they will run tubing (smaller diameter than the casing) down the casing, with a seating nipple at the end.
Then, they will attach a pump to the end of sucker rods, and run the rods such that the pump "seats" in the seating nipple. They then hook the rods up to the pump jack (which is the contraption that looks like a horse's head moving up and down in a field) and start producing.
I could keep going, but I think that answers your question.
A well that is shut-in is done so by means of a valve. When you close all the valves so that you don't produce anything, the well is shut-in.
When a well is capped, it means you've basically put a cap on the end of a pipe, usually because you have no intention of producing from it.
In my opinion, it should take no more than a day to hook up a well to a sales meter, providing all they were waiting on was an injection well to be drilled. Once the well is drilled, permitted, and put on line, all they need to do is run their surface pipe to move water from the tank battery to the injector well.
