Eco-Stim begins work in Oklahoma under one-year contract

The company’s first multi-stage horizontal well was completed without incident on 26 May 2017. Eco-Stim claims that this job represents the first deployment of its uniquely redesigned turbine-powered pumping units in the US. Most of the pumping horsepower used on the job was powered by turbine engines and 100% fuelled by CNG. The pressure pumping units reportedly performed well, achieving the performance criteria for the unique job characteristics specified by Midstates. Eco-Stim’s turbine engines are also capable of operating on diesel fuel, LNG, or natural gas supplied from a nearby sales pipelines or from the field.

Eco-Stim claims that it is expecting to carry out the completions for all of the Midstates wells in the midcontinent region during the term of the contract. In that connection, Midstates recently announced that it is considering adding a second drilling rig in the midcontinent region. The addition of a further rig would increase the number of well stimulation stages performance by Eco-Stim, and would keep the company’s first crew in Oklahama fully utilised.

Barry Ekstrand, EcoStim's Senior Vice President of Operations North America, said: “This is a very significant milestone for the company as we have now successfully entered the US well stimulation market. We signed this contract in late January 2017, completed a major financing in early March and began hiring our team and mobilising equipment in mid-to-late March. In fewer than 60 days, we have secured a strategically located operations base, hired a superb operations team, mobilised the needed equipment to execute the work, secured the necessary supply chain and now have completed our first well stimulation job in a multistage horizontal well."

Mitch Elkins, Executive Vice President of Operations for Midstates, added: “We are pleased to support emerging technologies in this industry that can also cost effectively reduce emissions and increase efficiencies in our operations. While we have yet to see the full cost benefits from the natural gas powered pumping units, we plan to move towards field gas as a fuel source and will continue working closely with the EcoStim team to achieve our cost control objectives.”

J. Chris Boswell, EcoStim's President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “This has been a tremendous team effort and I want to give special thanks to Bobby Chapman, Barry Ekstrand and Tommy Monsey, our Mid-continent District Manager, along with our full team in Fairview for their dedication to the success of this start-up. We also benefited from support received from our Argentina team during this start-up period, which I believe is among the fastest starts ever achieved in this industry. I am very proud of the effort put forth as well as the successes we have experienced recently and look forward to enhancing our strategic positions in both of our growth markets."

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/31052017/eco-stim-begins-work-in-oklahoma-under-one-year-contract/