Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance Fracture Completions

Zhang, Yanbin; Porcu, Matteo Marongiu; Ehlig-Economides, Christine; Tosic, Slavko; Economides, Michael J.

doi:10.2118/124431-ms

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition 2009

DOI: 10.2118/124431-ms

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Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance Fracture Completions

Yanbin Zhang

Matteo Marongiu Porcu

Christine Ehlig-Economides

et al.

Abstract: Experience shows that high-performance fractures (HPFs) may retain near unit flow efficiency (equivalent to zero skin in a vertical well) and rarely fail, even in highly deviated wells. This may be partly because overly simplistic models of the well flow behavior lead operators to maintain wells at lower production rates than could have been achieved for the same amount of injected proppant with a vertical well completion design. Rigorous models that account for widely accepted rock mechanics fundamentals indi… Show more

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Cited by 2 publications

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Limits of Well Deviation to Prevent Screen Erosion in Cased-Hole and Frac-Packed Wells

Wang¹

2010

SPE International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control

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For high permeability, loosely consolidated reservoirs, cased hole and frac packed (CHFP) completions have been employed for both sand control and production stimulation. More often than not, these wells are offshore and are drilled deviated or highly deviated from centralized platforms. Because fractures are almost always vertical with a very well-defined azimuth, fractures executed in deviated wells have very inefficient contact with the wellbores. This means only a few perforations are actually connected to the fracture even with the so called halo effect. As a result, a large portion of the total rate bypasses the fracture and enters the well through the perforations that are not in contact with fracture. For example, at 10,000 STB/d with permeability of 50 md, the fractional flow through the fracture is 64% even for a 10° well deviation. It drops to only 30% for a 45° well deviation. This provides different velocities, different erosion C-factors (15.6 vs. 39.2 through the fracture region and 1.4 vs. 1.9 for the rest, respectively) and different sand control characteristics between the two sets of perforations. A limited number of perforations connected to the fracture means that the velocity through them, for a given production rate, is high. This could cause fine movement which would further cause screen plugging and screen erosion. When the screen is partially plugged, it is more prone to erosion simply because the screen inflow area is reduced and therefore (at the same flow rate) the fluid velocity increases. Screen erosion can be more severe at one well deviation angle than another. Here the number of opened perforations in the deviated wells and a range of C-factors for different well production rates (i.e. for different reservoir permeabilities and well deviations) are calculated. These C-factors are compared with published experimental and field data. It appears that they frequently exceed the maximum C-factor of screen erosion. Finally, guidelines on acceptable well deviations that will not lead to screen erosion are offered.

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Limits of Well Deviation to Prevent Screen Erosion in Cased-Hole and Frac-Packed Wells

Wang¹

2010

SPE International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control

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Design Flaws in Hydraulic Fracturing

Economides

Wang²

2010

SPE International Symposium and Exhibition on Formation Damage Control

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There are many widely held and often repeated misconceptions in the design of hydraulic fracture treatment. These include the design for fracture conductivity, fracture length (for which some have used terms such as "effective" or "apparent"), time of injection, and proppant injection schedule. These issues are intimately connected with the selection of proppants, fracturing fluids, and of course, the hardware for field execution. For those practitioners who have adopted Unified Fracture Design (UFD), the desired fracture geometry is not a matter of speculation. For the given reservoir permeability, drainage, and, volume of specific proppant injected, the fracture geometry is set. A design that follows UFD will maximize the post treatment productivity index. Thus, statements like "maximizing conductivity" or "maximizing effective length" are not appropriate and in fact, they are meaningless. However, there is a lot of room for improvement in design. These include the selection of a large mass of proppant or changing the proppant or using non-damaging fluids which, in this context, means damaging in the proppant pack or damaging to the formation by leak-off. We present in this paper a wide range of designs for three oil and three gas reservoirs with permeability of 0.01, 1 and 100 md, respectively. Results show the impact on the productivity index by 1) deviating from UFD design, 2) the beneficial effects of lack thereof using more of better proppant, and 3) the effect of fluid selection and their leak-off, and the resulting different kind of damage. We show which kind of damage is important and which is unimportant. We also examine the impact of the proppant injection schedule for both unrestricted and tip screen out (TSO) treatments. In the low permeability reservoirs, the selection of fluids and proppant schedule become crucial in obtaining the required fracture length. Fast ramping up of proppant is never indicated. Furthermore, leak-off damage is not important. For the high permeability reservoirs, selection of better proppants and fast ramping up of their injection are keys to the design. For the high permeability gas well, it is necessary to remedy the turbulence effects by changing the design further.

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Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance Fracture Completions

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Limits of Well Deviation to Prevent Screen Erosion in Cased-Hole and Frac-Packed Wells

Limits of Well Deviation to Prevent Screen Erosion in Cased-Hole and Frac-Packed Wells

Design Flaws in Hydraulic Fracturing

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