>...and would it be fair to say that Welltec is having problems finishing these wells as attested by the fact that the horizontal part is not cased, thus exposing it to cave-in the first time a frac is done and thus loosing the well. Reading between the lines it would look like the JV is not doing any better than FO was on the finishing front.

As Lanman said Welltec has nothing to do with the Mako trough.

Lanman > "Welltec said they were operating near Szeged. That is right near the Algyo field and the new Szoreg-1 strategic storage facility, where they will be drilling horizontal wells...therefore the chances are, Welltec is working on those wells.

From MOL in regards to the storage facility:

It is planned to drill an additional 44 wells and to complete them with 5” diameter of tubing size, which number includes 10 horizontal wells. In order to avoid sand control problems the wells will be gravel packed."

From Welltec's website:

"These wells are located near the city of Szeged that is situated close to the Serbian and Rumanian borders. They are new wells completed with about 6,900 ft of cased hole and about 330 ft of open hole with a deviation of 90° at the open hole."

The depth of 6,900 feet is 2103 meters; it is in the conventional, therefore a more permeable geological structure. The length of the horizontal bore is only 300 feet long, and there is no suggestion of fracing these horizontal bores.

The purpose of these wells is to pump the gas into these long ago depleted shallow gas fields for storage. The purpose of the horizontal leg is to increase the absorption rate into these fields.

As for Exxon having plans for horizontal drilling at this early stage of the game, I have doubts. Based on my understanding of the geological structure of the Szolnok formation, I would go along with Lanman's suggestion of multi well drilling from the same platform.

The structure in this illustration does not represent the structure in the Mako trough. However, it does give an idea about multi well drilling from the same platform.