The Bahariya formation of the Western Desert is characterized as a dirty sandstone with a high clay content, h. It is highly laminated (streaks of 20- to 50 ft spread over a 200-- to 300-ft column), the has poor permeability is poor in most cases, and has low to normal reservoir pressure variance. Many of these wells are shutin owing to because of very poor productivity, and those that do produce with artificial lift do so with very little recovery. In general terms, these are considered to be marginal wells and not worthy of particular attention until a new approach was taken towards them. A careful review of the field suggested a possible benefit from implementing hydraulic fracturing treatments. It was, however, not a simple case of just applying hydraulic fracturing treatment to every well, but required proper well screening, thorough log analysis, calculating and validating mechanical rock properties, and enhanced 3D fracture modeling to have for a successful campaign. Maintaining sustained production was equally essential to the project because damage to fracture conductivity and proppant flowback after a fracturing treatment can easily erode the financial benefits of a fracturing treatment. One of the enhancements implemented was a proprietary liquid resin coating (LRC) of the proppants to control proppant flowback and to act as a fracture conductivity endurance agent. This paper discusses such treatments and the methodology applied on a recent 14fourteen -well fracturing campaign. The production results have been impressive and will serve as good guidelines for other operators who may also be facing similar challenges in the North North Africa region and elsewhere. Introduction With the constant increase in oil prices in of the recent past, very favorable economic gains have been easily achieved through the implementation of non unconventional techniques. Proper well stimulation has been one of the most economical in achieving these gains. The success of this technique involves proper well screening, zone selection, stimulation technique, and selection of appropriate product. In such cases the main objectives included :Connecting the laminated streaks of the formation.Bypassing any skin damage at the near near-wellbore area.Extending the economic life of the well. The baharia Bahariya formation is a heterogeneous, laminated structure. W with limited vertical to horizontal permeability ratio. Historically, naturally producing this zone has shown limited recovery, leaving much of the reserves untouched. To achieve further recovery hHydraulic fracturing was implemented to achieve further recovery. After the first few trials further improvement to the technique was achieved by the implementation of liquid resin system (LRS). The comprehensive analysis proved the benefits of applying LRS compared to the use of other techniques to reduce proppant flowback.

Hydraulic fracturing has been extremely successful in the western desert of Egypt, with approximately 85% of the production resulting from the use of this stimulation technique. However, in many cases, the proximity of producing zones to underlying (or overlying) water zones can be a deterrent to fracturing. In the absence of geological barriers, the fracture height can grow uncontrolled during a fracturing treatment into the water-bearing interval and cause unwanted water production. By shortening the well's production life and increasing disposal and lifting costs, excessive water production can be extremely detrimental in marginal fields. This paper presents case histories in which wells were hydraulically fractured using conventional techniques, resulting in higher than 60% water cut, and even as much as 100% in one case. While using the conformance-while-fracturing (CWF) method, the water cut was as low as 4%, even when the adjacent water zones were within 20 ft of the perforations. This technique provides a tremendous boost to the economics and an effective solution to a field otherwise plagued with water overproduction. The CWF technique incorporates a relative permeability modifier (RPM) in the fracturing-fluids design. The RPM results in a reduction of effective permeability-to-water without significant changes to the relative permeability-to-oil. This paper discusses the properties of the RPM, the CWF job-design considerations, its field applications, and post-fracturing results in comparison to offset wells fractured conventionally. These techniques might be beneficial to other companies faced with similar water-production challenges.

Hydraulic fracturing has been used for a long time in the Egyptian western-desert reservoirs and has proven to be very beneficial in increasing well productivity by approximately 25% over that of wells completed without hydraulic fracturing. However, production of water caused by fracture growth into the adjacent underlying (or overlying) water zones to the hydrocarbon zone is a major challenge. Excessive water production threatens the economics of a well by Shortening its production life by trapping the hydrocarbon reservesIncreasing disposal and lifting costs that can reach up to an estimate of billions of dollars, partially attributed to water-disposal regulationsBoosting fines-migration problemsIncreasing the rate of tubular corrosion and scale buildup These can be sufficient reasons to not consider fracturing in marginal fields. The conformance-while-fracturing (CWF) technique incorporates a relative permeability modifier (RPM) in the fracturing-fluids design. The RPM provides a reduction in effective permeability to water without significant changes to the relative permeability to oil. Applying the CWF technique resulted in water cut as low as 4%, even when the adjacent water zones were within 10 ft of the perforations. This technique provides a tremendous economic boost and has been found to be an effective solution for fields otherwise plagued with water production. Increased recoverable reserves are now being observed from these wells. This paper discusses the geological and reservoir parameters of the wells and zones of interest, the properties of the RPM, the CWF job-design considerations (and the associated challenges to the job design), its field applications, and post-fracturing results in comparison to offset wells fractured conventionally in the same reservoir and at the same level. It is envisaged that CWF techniques will prove to be beneficial to other operators facing similar production challenges.

Hydraulic fracturing has proven to be extremely successful in the western desert of Egypt. Approximately 85% of production in this area results from this stimulation technique, specifically in the reservoirs of interest documented in this paper. However, a deterrent to fracturing in many cases has been the proximity of the producing zones to underlying (or overlying) water zones, either located near the water-oil contact or hydrocarbon zones adjacent to water-bearing zones. In the absence of geological barriers, the fracture height can grow uncontrolled during a fracturing treatment into the water-bearing interval and cause unwanted water production. Excessive water production threatens the economics of a well by: shortening its production life, increasing disposal and lifting costs, boosting the fines migration, and increasing the rate of tubular corrosion and scale buildup. Many times, in marginal fields, these can be sufficient reasons to consider not fracturing. This paper presents case histories where wells were hydraulically fractured using conventional techniques resulting in higher than 60% water cut (even as much as 100% in one case); while with the use of the conformance-while-fracturing (CWF) method, the water cut obtained was as low as 4%, even when the adjacent water zones were within 20 ft of the perforations. This technique provides a tremendous boost to the economics and an effective solution (increasing recoverable reserves from these wells by allowing the hydrocarbons to be produced almost water-free) to a field otherwise plagued with water production. The CWF technique incorporates a relative-permeability modifier (RPM) in the fracturing-fluids design. The RPM provides a reduction in effective permeability to water without significant changes to the relative permeability to oil. This paper discusses the geological and reservoir parameters of the wells and zones of interest, the properties of the RPM, the CWF job-design considerations (and the associated challenges to the job design), its field applications, and post-fracturing results in comparison to offset wells fractured conventionally in the same reservoir and at the same level. It is envisaged that CWF techniques will prove to be beneficial to other operators faced with similar production challenges.

Hydraulic fracturing has been extremely successful in the western desert of Egypt, with approximately 85% of the production resulting from the use of this stimulation technique. However, in many cases the proximity of producing zones to underlying (or overlying) water zones can be a deterrent to fracturing. In the absence of geological barriers, the fracture height can grow uncontrolled during a fracturing treatment into the water-bearing interval and cause unwanted water production. Excessive water production can be detrimental to the economics of a well. By shortening the well's production life and increasing disposal and lifting costs, excessive water production can be extremely detrimental in marginal fields. This paper presents case histories in which wells were hydraulically fractured using conventional techniques, resulting in higher than 60% water cut, even as much as 100% in one case. While using the conformance-while-fracturing (CWF) method, the water cut was as low as 4%, even when the adjacent water zones were within 20 ft of the perforations. This technique provides a tremendous boost to the economics and an effective solution to a field otherwise plagued with water overproduction. The CWF technique incorporates a relative permeability modifier (RPM) in the fracturing-fluids design. The RPM results in a reduction of effective permeability-to-water without significant changes to the relative permeability-to-oil. This paper describes the geological environment of the El Dour field and discusses properties of the RPM, the CWF job-design considerations, its field applications, and post-fracturing results in comparison to offset wells fractured conventionally. These techniques might be beneficial to other companies faced with similar water-production challenges. Introduction As the world's oil-energy demand increases, challenging reservoirs are now being explored. One of the biggest challenges is the water production that normally accompanies the hydrocarbon production. The water can trap the oil and leave huge hydrocarbon reserves unrecovered and also accelerate the fines-migration problem. During well completion, water can increase the chances of corrosion to the surface, downhole tubular, and the chances of scale formations, which can be very difficult to remove once formed (Curtice et al. 2008). An example of a challenging reservoir is one that does not produce normally without hydraulic-fracturing treatments and has water zones very near to the hydrocarbon zone. Once these reservoirs are completed using hydraulic fracturing, the water production increases. The problems caused by the water production can be difficult to solve. The case presented in this paper involves one of these reservoirs located in southern Cairo in the western desert, called El Diyur field.