The problem of gas well completions in the San Juan Basin of Northwestern New Mexico and Southwestern Colorado in the Mesaverde formation of Upper Cretaceous Age called for a new technique over drilling in with the use of cable tools or drilling in with mud and rotary tools. In May of 1951, the EI Paso Natural Gas Company pioneered and successfully completed the first gas well using natural gas as a vehicle to clean drill cuttings from the bore hole and the cavings after shooting the well with nitroglycerin.

This new technique of gas well completion has reduced well cost, increased initial production, the deliverability, and has made the Mesaverde formation a commercial gas producing horizon in the San Juan Basin.

In the San Juan Basin, since May of 1951, approximately 1,000 gas wells have been completed with the use of natural gas as a circulating medium. It has been conservatively estimated that over 2,000 gas wells can be completed in the future by using this method.

This unique drilling and well completion procedure can no doubt be adapted to other oil and gas provinces through a detailed geologic study of the sediments to be drilled in order to reach the possible producing horizons.

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