An Integrated Single-Well Approach to Evaluating Completion Effectiveness and Reservoir Properties in the Wind Dancer Field

Abstract

Accelerating the learning curve in a fluvial tight-gas development program can be achieved by understanding the impact of reservoir quality and completion properties on well productivity. Too often completion changes are made over a small sample (statistical) wherein numerous parameters (proppant volumes/type, gel-loading, etc) are changed without clear accountability of the variation in local geology and reservoir quality. This complicates basic production analysis techniques and can be a costly practice to determine the direction in which optimization should proceed.Various proppants, fluid types and design schedules were analyzed to quantify the impact of these designs on productive fracture half-lengths and conductivity. Calibrated fracture propagation models were also utilized to relate these productive properties (fracture length, conductivity and permeability) to stress profile, gel-loading and proppant types via fracture propagation models. The development of calibrated mechanical properties, petrophysical models and understanding of current hydraulic fracture and reservoir properties thus enabled redesigning of future completions and the analysis of these completions. This paper demonstrates the application of appropriate fracture propagation models, rate-transient analysis and production history matching techniques to understand the direction in which completion design changes must move to increase productivity.