Building Multifrac Completion Strategies in Tight Gas Reservoirs: A North Sea Case

Abstract

Hydraulic fracture design driven by multi-disciplinary collaboration can maximize the production potential of complex multi-frac horizontal wells. Integration of multiple information sources (i.e.: geological, dynamic and geomechanical data) allows to build representative models and have proven to improve modelling towards a realistic understanding of tight reservoir performance of several multi-fracced wells. 3D properties encompassing the reservoir geological heterogeneity, pore pressure, mechanical elasticity and state of stress were utilized to develop a strategy to fracture stimulate a horizontal wellbore in the North Sea Region. The study was instrumental to build fit-for-purpose hydraulic fracture designs by incorporating state of stress changes related to pore pressure depletion on different faulted compartments supported by a reservoir dynamic simulation. Such models provided meaningful value to optimize the well trajectory used to access the host rock, understand fracture height growth possibilities in different compartments and define the number/size of hydraulic fractures required for optimum production.