it makes sense to me they are directional drilling- some forget this saves the sometimes considerable time and money required to start from scratch by creating a new drill pad.
There are also non-monetary considerations as you already know but for everybodies benefit,ZNOG leases the land via contracts from a religious kibbutz,which no doubt has more rigid than normal considerations about the proximity and noise of drilling to their peaceful kibbutz. Thus the drill pad is well isolated from the kibbutz and other dwellings.
I've posted posts before showing directional drilling going up to 5-7 miles laterally from other companies pads- the following article mentions 5 miles.
Without going through old disclosures it seemed the non-commerical oil they found, though below 15000 feet, was not as abundant in the very bottom 500 feet? of the well. Of course ,at the annual meeting a few years ago, then CEO Dustin said using 4.5 inch pipe at the bottom due to problems they experienced higher up, including some unplanned minor directional drilling as you alluded to, was something like drilling with spaghetti-I don't know how important that was in their decision to stop total depth at 5060 meters- 16600 feet.
But obviously they based their purchase of the new rig with its total depth capacities based on the 3D.
The 3D radius is slightly larger than 2.5 miles( with the rectangular corners being further)as we've both reported before. It seemed they were somewhere near the edge of the vicinity of a possible reservoir but impermeablity made it either economically non-viable or Israels restrictions against fracking mentioned by some,with aggressive acidification viewed by some as comparable to fracking?
Will the 3d show which areas are permeable so they can target those areas?
I have no insider info but considering their aggressiveness since the 3D,I have to assume they believe the 3D shows one or more specific favorable targets within reach of the original drill pad, which they are reusing.
AS somebody noted: "Directional = At an angle. If MJ2 "True Vertical Depth" (TVD) is a "little deeper" than MJ1, then perhaps MJ2 TVD is 5100 meters. If MJ2's "Measured Depth" (MD) is the max capacity of the rig, then its target could be 3300 meters laterally from the well head. If multiple wells were drilled that reached 3300 in a radius from the well head in all directions, then that would cover 35 sq km, about 1/2 of the 3D seismic area."
Fortunately the hypotenuse triangle equation- a squared plus b squared equals c squared- is very forgiving/favorable to such directional drilling as the summation concludes - 5100m TVD plus 3300m lateral reach is only ca 6074.537 meters- which is 19929ft.
To my knowledge the nearest onshore Israeli commercial wells-the meged(sp?) ca 20-40 miles to the SSW also encountered pay dirt below 4000 meters.
https://drillers.com/directional-drilling-eve...d-to-know/
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