A Review of Design Considerations for Fracture Stimulation of Highly
Deviated Wellbores

McDaniel, Billy

doi:10.2523/111211-ms

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The need to remove the problem of poor communication between the wellbore and the fracture has spurred a revival of hydrajet perforating during the current decade (Surjaatmadja 1998, and especially the past five years, (East, et al 2005, Hejl et al 2004, McDaniel 2005, and McDaniel et al 2007. In all the references just cited, and in more than a dozen other papers, the hydrajet perforating is combined with, or an integral part of a multistage fracturing process.…”

Section: Geology: Large Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

“…If we can achieve only one (or a small number) of transverse fracs with adequate fracture conductivity, then we can achieve the most favorable reservoir drainage (Demarchos et al 2005, McDaniel 2007. Often, an operator is not actually aware of what is the PFP for the reservoir in which a lateral is drilled.…”

Section: Fig 3 -Illustration Of Achieving Desired Isolation Of Transmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gas or Oil Producer? Layered? Laminated?—Basic Guiding Principles We Should Understand for Effective Fracture Stimulation

McDaniel

2008

SPE Eastern Regional/Aapg Eastern Section Joint Meeting

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Sometimes we dive too quickly into the smallest of details when trying to plan for fracture stimulation applications in our industry. It has been too often that a frac design engineer will gloss over the importance of unknown or missing reservoir data but spend many hours chasing the "exact-best" value to use for the treating fluid viscosity in the frac design simulator. Some reservoirs we frac routinely and understand how fracturing is best applied, and a few where we can choose the full scientific approach and monitor with microseismic listening. When there is just no chance to know accurate reservoir data, we may have few design options. However, it seems more often the case that the "frac design world" simply does not search out important data available within the geologist-geophysicist realm. The available pseudo-3D and numerical 3D frac design simulator software available to us can be used as a crutch instead of a useful tool.We can be a novice in frac design from our lack of experience, or because we do not understand how to use our experience in a new or different reservoir setting. In very recent years, we have witnessed many highly experienced "frac gurus" fail to understand how to apply their experience when moving to horizontal wellbore applications. This paper will offer guidance to the less experienced frac design personnel as to some of the more important basic concepts of integrating hydraulic fracturing applications to reservoirs or well completion plans where little experience currently exists. Some reservoirs have been evaluated and reported in our literature to near "overkill" proportions for vertical completions and then struggled to understand frac stimulation of horizontal completions. Within the large body of technical papers and texts, most have slighted the importance of two factors: Rock hardness and formation pore pressure of gas reservoirs. This paper will stress the importance of including these factors.With record high oil prices, and in some markets, good gas prices, we are seeing the extension of hydraulic fracturing to areas and reservoirs where little or no "frac" experience exists. Additionally, our need to fracture stimulate when our wellbore is significantly deviated is starting to multiply in number and importance, both offshore and onshore. This paper will be a valuable aid to this transition.

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Section: Geology: Large Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fig 3 -Illustration Of Achieving Desired Isolation Of Transmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas or Oil Producer? Layered? Laminated?—Basic Guiding Principles We Should Understand for Effective Fracture Stimulation

McDaniel

2008

SPE Eastern Regional/Aapg Eastern Section Joint Meeting

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Use of Hydrajet Perforating to Improve Fracturing Success Sees Global Expansion

McDaniel

East

Surjaatmadja

2008

CIPC/SPE Gas Technology Symposium 2008 Joint Conference

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As shown by technical papers as early as the 1960s, our industry has long known that hydrajetting perforations or slots through cemented casing could often "bail-out" a problem well that otherwise seemed completely resistant to hydraulic fracturing attempts. For most of the first 50 years of fracturing applications, few operators had sufficient demand for the fracturing process to make it a commodity service, especially before the advent of coiled tubing (CT) services in the 1980s. Often, this type of well service was costly because of the need for both abrasive mixing and high-pressure pumping. In many cases, it was too time consuming to be practical as an "every-well" application, and lower-cost conventional explosive shape-charge perforating seemed sufficient for most wells. As oil and gas prices have drastically increased in recent years, many operators have realized that for some well conditions, the use of hydrajet perforating (HP) can improve fracture stimulation efficiency and well economics. In a few cases HP has proven to be the only way that effective fracture stimulation could be achieved. In the past few years there has been a growing acceptance among both operators and service companies that hydrajet (abrasive jetting) perforating can improve overall well economics for fracture stimulated wells in many reservoirs. Some newer methodologies have combined hydrajet perforating and hydraulic fracturing into a single, continuous, multi-stage stimulation method. For many wells needing multiple fracture stimulations, significant reductions in nonproductive time (NPT) allows for reduced well costs even when more actual fracture stages are pumped. Use of more stages has often provided significant production gains and greater recoverable reserves. Enhanced stimulation success in many moderately hard and very hard formations have proven the value of converting from shape charge perforating to hydrajetting as a stand-alone operation to avoid severe near-wellbore problems during hydraulic fracturing stimulation treatments. Since about 2000, and especially during the most recent 5 years, service providers have progressively expanded the processes, which included hydrajet perforating, especially in conjunction with hydraulic fracturing methods. This paper will review the expanding applications of hydrajet perforating in recent years, including case histories from several global applications. Background Early technical papers tell us that hydrojetting (w/o abrasives) was used with acidizing and fracture acidizing as early as 1939, primarily in zones completed open hole. However, with the incorporation of solid abrasives (hydrajetting, using abrasives) the jetting nozzles in use then could only perform for minutes before excessive erosion became a problem. The literature also reveals that around 1958 there was a renewed interest in sand-jetting and more abrasion-resistant carbide jets were developed. In May, 1961, the Journal of Petroleum Technology included three landmark publications that presented much of what had been happening since 1958 with respect to HP applications, and described other hydrajetting wellbore functions such as jetting cement from casing, cutting casing, scale removal, and other applications. The more extensive of these publications (Brown et al. 1961, and Pittman et al. 1961) had first been presented at technical conferences in October, 1960. The shorter, introductory article (Ousterhout 1961) indicated that by early in 1961 over 5,000 hydrajetting jobs had been performed with a success rate in excess of 90%; more than half of these were perforating applications. At that time, explosive/shape charge perforating was still in its infancy, with bullet perforating still common.

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Innovative Frac Stimulation of Low-Perm Oil Zone in High-Deviation Well Offshore Congo

Lemesnager

Mbouyou

Gavalda

et al. 2008

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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Total operates an offshore oil field approximately 60 Km West of Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo. To date, the Albian reservoir has contributed most of the oil produced. However, a significant part of the oil in place is in the Cenomanian, a low permeability sandstone formation with poor quality. As of early 2007, only two of the initial 50 wells in the field had been completed in the Cenomanian. It was desired to evaluate the potential of hydraulic fracturing stimulation treatments to more fully comprehend the production capability of this reservoir. In early 2007, a third well was drilled and completed in this structure, penetrating the Cenomanian at a 60 degree inclination for this purpose. Proppant fracturing from a wellbore with a 60 degree inclination in a hard-rock formation has always been difficult. Also adding another level of uncertainty was the fact that the Cenomanian has never been fracture stimulated. This paper will detail the planning process from both the operator and the service provider perspectives with specific well control issues related to an over-pressured reservoir. Review of the well conditions and operational constraints indicated the best approach would be a multi-stage pinpoint stimulation method incorporating hydrajet perforating and sand plug isolations using a stimulation vessel especially designed for such work. Additionally, a comprehensive review of the actual three-stage stimulation treatments will detail the perforating, fracturing, and sand plug isolation after each stage. With BH memory gauges just below the jetting tool assembly, post-frac reviews of downhole pressure data is compared with the live annulus data used for real time decisions during the stimulation stages. Post-frac well cleanup and early production data will be included. Background Of the initial 50 wells in the field, only two producers were completed in the Cenomanian instead of the Albian reservoir. Although this reservoir constitutes a major part of the oil reserves of the field, its low permeability (10mD) and poor formation quality (argillaceous siltstones) always result in a low production index in perforated cased hole configuration. To show that a field development on such a reservoir could be economic, it was needed to prove that effective fracturing operations could be performed on the third well, drilled early in 2007, in this structure. No similar operation had been undertaken in West Africa on a hard low perm rock where the core samples appear to come from a well in Texas, instead of offshore West Africa. Furthermore, a fines stabilizer chemical agent was pumped to provide a treatment solution to lock the migrating fines in place to minimize the potential damage to the formation and maintaining the production flow rates of the well. This offshore field is currently operated from two primary platforms set in about 140 m of water. Most of the oil production has been from the 48 wells completed in the Albian reservoir. This reservoir, below the Cenomanian, is a moderate permeability carbonate formation with a varied degree of natural fracturing present. It is typically completed using a large volume HCl acid-frac stimulation after perforating. These wells account for more than 97% of the pre-2007 production of the field What enhances the value of the Cenomanian formation as a producing reservoir (while increasing the complexity of drilling and completion operations) is that this reservoir is significantly overpressured. The reservoir pressure in these zones required the use of a 1.40 sg completion fluid (mixed CaCl2 / CaBr2 brine) to maintain 8 bar over-pressure above reservoir pressure.

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A Review of Design Considerations for Fracture Stimulation of Highly Deviated Wellbores

Cited by 6 publications

References 7 publications

Gas or Oil Producer? Layered? Laminated?—Basic Guiding Principles We Should Understand for Effective Fracture Stimulation

Gas or Oil Producer? Layered? Laminated?—Basic Guiding Principles We Should Understand for Effective Fracture Stimulation

Use of Hydrajet Perforating to Improve Fracturing Success Sees Global Expansion

Innovative Frac Stimulation of Low-Perm Oil Zone in High-Deviation Well Offshore Congo

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