KeyfactsEnergy

Commentary: Wells That Go Around the Corner

19/08/2025

By Calin Dragoie, VP Geoscience, Chinook Consulting Services

For a few years now, unconventional oil and gas operators in the USA managed to squeeze 2 mile laterals in 1 mile acreages, by drilling lateral section of shale wells across lease areas, turning them and drilling a return section inside the same lease. Shell was the pioneer, with the first horseshoe well (NEELIE 1-85 LOV-4H) drilled in Loving County, Texas in 2019. It was followed by a few companies replicating the intriguing design over the next years.

Stacked paperclips drilled by Oxy in Eddy County, New Mexico

U-turn, U-Laterals, horseshoe wells or paperclip wells were drilled in Wolfcamp and Bone Springs targets in the Permian Basin (in both Delaware and Midland sub-basins), also in the Eagle Ford shale, Niobrara and Utica shale. About 50 paperclip wells were executed in the US between 2020 and 2024.

Canadian bent wells

High turn wells, where azimuth changes more than 180 degrees in the horizontal part of the well, have been drilled in Canada as well.

Obsidian (still named Penn West at the time) drilled a string of multilateral collector wells, with legs reaching between other Bluesky multilateral wells. The complicated well designs contained between 25 and 47 legs.

Obsidian Bluesky multilaterals in Peace River oilsands

One of these wells, 100043008318W500, drilled in 2015, has legs on both sides of the build section that bend more than 180 degrees. Five of the 35 legs exhibit trajectories that start heading West and end up East bound.

Boomerang wells

Single leg boomerang wells, with horizontal sections turning up to 90 degrees in the middle of the lateral, were drilled by Kelt in Valhalla, targeting the Montney silt/shale. The first lateral of this kind dates back to 2015, when 102120807811W600 was drilled with a turn of 78 degrees in the middle of the lateral section.

Kelt Montney wells in Valhalla – plan view

Several other wells were drilled nearby, with turns of up to 90 degrees, sometimes in stacked benches of the Montney Formation.

Kelt Montney wells in Valhalla – 3D view

Drill-bit multilateral exploration

Ghost River kicked off several legs in different directions in their 100140503503W400 well, drilled in 2021. The well ended up with leg 6 turning 155 degrees in the lateral.

Variable turn Sparky multi-leg drilled by Ghost River in eastern Alberta

The high lateral turn was not executed to extend the well, but rather to search for better sand in the laterally variable reservoir.

Cenovus drilled a few multilateral well targeting the Cummings member of the Mannville Group in their Rivercourse property in Eastern Alberta.

One of these wells, 100130104701W400, drilled in 2024, has legs draining the Cummings sand, extending for as long as good-quality sand was observed in the well. Leg 5 bends a full 174 degrees in the lateral.

More boomerang wells are planned in unconventional reservoirs in Canada, with operators maximizing access to their resource when land access is tight. We are anxiously awaiting the first full bend U-Turn to be drilled in Canada. It should not be too long before we see the first paperclip well in the basin.

Paperclip Wells

New well design in the Permian Basin

Starting with Shell in 2019, a few Permian basin drillers adopted this striking well design. It looks like an unraveled paperclip, and has been called “horseshoe well’ or “U-Turn well”.

Shell adopted the “horseshoe” well design at well NEELIE 1-85 LOV-4H to address technical issues, as well as lease rights (source).

These wells usually target the Wolfcamp Formation, about 10,000 ft below the surface of West-Central Texas. Typically, lateral section of wells in the Permian basin are 1 mile long, many times constrained by mineral rights, confined to 1 mile wide parcels of land. Technological advances in drilling, directional drilling and geosteering over the past few years make it possible to drill longer wells, with 2 mile lateral becoming common.

Paperclips in the Delaware Basin

Longer laterals lead to increased efficiency, lower surface footprint and ultimately to lower cost per flowing barrel. Many contributing factors lead to increased efficiency: less lease construction, a single build section, a single intermediate casing, more frack stages placed in a row and so on.

With many fractured, postage stamp size mineral rights, drillers are often constrained by 1 mile wide parcels. To take advantage of long reach laterals, operators adopted the trajectory that doubles up on space. Welcome, paperclip well design.

U-Turn wells, 1 mile laterals and 2-mile laterals over blocks in Loving County, TX

Matador Resources replicated the paperclip trajectory on land immediately adjacent to the original Neelie 1-85 4H location.

Paperclip Well

One of the wells was sidetracked by Matador after a failed attempt and redrilled for the full 2 mile lateral length. Reported IPs from the two completed U-turn wells was over 2,000 boepd (source). Matador estimates it saved 10 million by drilling and completing the two turned wells instead of four one-mile wells.

Stacked paperclip wells in Reeves County, TX; drilled by PDS in 2023

U-Turn wells drilled under 1 mile wide parcels in Reeves County, TX

PDS drilled several stacked wells, targeting different Wolfcamp benches, all in the confines of a 1 square mile block.

Callon drilled two paperclip wells off a single multi-well surface pad in Midland County. One-mile laterals target the upper Wolfcamp, while the 2-mile U-Turn wells are placed in the Lower Wolfcamp.

Calloon Midland Map

Calloon Midland 3D

Calloon Midland Cross-section

The approach is not limited to the Permian Basin.

Chesapeake drilled a paperclip well in the lower Eagle Ford shale in La Salle County in late 2020, to fit a 10,000 ft horizontal, with 9,200 of completed lateral length (source) into a 1 square mile lease, with sections on either side of an existing one-mile lateral targeting the same formation.

Paperclip well in the Eagle Ford shale of La Salle County

U-Turn well drilled in the Lower Eagle Ford shale by Chesapeake in 2020

2023 saw several of these wells being drilled and completed. Civitas drilled such a well in Reagan County, Midland Basin.

U-Turn well drilled by Civitas in Reagan County in 2023

Civitas paperclip well targeting the Wolfcamp in the Midland Basin

Vital Energy drilled 3 paperclip wells in Upton County, on land slightly larger than 1×1 mile, flanked by Pioneer 2 mile laterals and Apache 3 mile laterals.