This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 125970, ’Montney Unconventional Gas - Next Generation, An Integrated Approach To Optimizing Wellbore Completions Technology,’ by Rodney Schnell, SPE, Nicole Tapper, SPE, and Ryan Genyk, SPE, Talisman Energy, and Dalis Deliu, SPE, and Habib Tavakol, SPE, Halliburton, originally prepared for the 2009 SPE Eastern Regional Meeting, Charleston, West Virginia, 23-25 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The full-length paper presents the evolution of well construction in the Montney play, technical and economic challenges, and the new synergy developed between drilling and completions. Introduction The Montney formation is a prolific tight gas reservoir in the western Canadian sedimentary basin, in both Alberta and British Columbia. In the Peace River Arch area, horizontal wells with multiple fractures are the key to achieving economic success. Using various area drilling and completion techniques as a starting point, lowering the installation cost without affecting the completion or production results was the driver for the next generation of completions. Swellable-packer systems with ball-drop-actuated sliding sleeves initially were run in various openhole configurations to allow multiple fracture treatments to be pumped in one operation, a significant savings from multiple-day operations. From these successes, a drive to reduce costs further led to cemented ball-drop sliding sleeves with a hydraulic-fracture-initiator sleeve at the toe of the horizontal well. After installing the cemented sleeves on eight horizontal wells and improving the process continuously, it has been concluded that the system can reduce drilling and completion costs by 25% when compared to swellable-packer systems with intermediate casing and by 50% over traditional cemented liners with perforated completions. These savings are accomplished without affecting well performance negatively. Background Swellable Packers. To stimulate the Montney reservoir effectively with multiple fractures, it was necessary to isolate each interval. As a potential improvement to cementing a liner in place and perforating individual intervals, swellable packers were used with sliding sleeves between the packers. The sleeves were actuated using a ball-drop mechanism to isolate the portion of the wellbore that had been fracture stimulated previously. Once isolated, the next interval is accessed when hydraulic pressure from the pumping units opens the next sleeve. The speed of the completion operations with the swellable packers and ball-drop system is very efficient. It is quite easy for the operator to achieve seven fracture stimulations in 1 day, and there were no problems encountered initiating fractures into the open hole between the swellable packers. Production Results. Microseismic data show very good coverage of the Montney formation and show that the swellable packers were able to pro-vide adequate isolation consistently between fractures.