Evolving Completion Designs to Optimize Well Productivity from a Low Permeability Oil Sandstone Turner Reservoir in the Powder River Basin—One Operator's Experience

Agarwal, Karn; Kegel, Justin; Ballard, Bryce; Lolon, Ely; Mayerhofer, Michael; Weijers, Leen; Melcher, Howard; Compton, Sarah A.; Turner, Paul N.

doi:10.2118/194350-ms

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

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“…Low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs have become important exploratory and development fields in the world (Zou et al 2017;Mu and Ji 2019). Horizontal well small-hole fracturing technology is an important production stimulation measure for low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs (Lei et al 2018;Qu et al 2019;Agarwal et al 2019). In reservoirs, the expansion packer determines the outcomes of the fracturing technology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-objective optimization and experiment of nylon cord rubber in expandable packer

et al. 2021

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Nylon cord rubber has the advantages of small residual deformation and is easy to lift and lower the tubing string in low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs. However, it is associated with low-pressure resistance and poor sealing performance. To enhance the performance of nylon cord rubber, a three-dimensional numerical model of the nylon cord rubber was established and its accuracy experimentally determined. The Plackett–Burman test, the Steepest climbing test and the Response surface method were used to acquire the polynomial response surface model connecting structural parameters with bearing and sealing pressure. Using genetic algorithms, optimal structural parameters of nylon cord rubber were determined depending on field operation. The reliability of the optimized results was verified by laboratory tests. It was shown that after optimization, the bearing capacity of the expandable packer increased by 25% while the sealing performance increased by 66%. In addition, the bearing pressure was 70 MPa while the sealing pressure was 50 MPa. These measurements effectively met the on-site requirements of high-pressure and fine fracturing in low-permeability oil and gas reservoirs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-objective optimization and experiment of nylon cord rubber in expandable packer

et al. 2021

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Tight Oil EOR through Inter-Fracture Gas Flooding within a Single Horizontal Well

Fu¹,

Bonifas²,

Finley³

et al. 2019

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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Over the last decade, tight oil production has become significant with the success of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, the recovery factor of tight oil production remains very low and no standard secondary recovery method exists after primary depletion. We propose a new secondary recovery method: to use existing hydraulic fractures (every other fracture) in a horizontal well as gas injection and oil production sites to conduct inter-fracturegas flooding within a single well. An ideal process of this method envisions a horizontal well centered in an enclosed reservoir, where the hydraulic fractures are evenly distributed along the well, parallel to each other. If the hydraulic fractures can be effectively isolated, and injection and production can be conducted through alternate fractures at the wellbore, then highly efficient flooding patterns can be created. Key questions include: Is there adequate injectivity and productivity in a sub-microdarcy reservoir?How far are the ideal reservoir conditions from reality?How difficult is it to isolate individual fractures within the wellbore? In addressing these key questions, first, the success of a flooding process relies on reasonable injectivity and response time between the injector and producer – in this case the injector being one hydraulic fracture and the producer being an adjacent hydraulic fracture; both economical rates and reasonable communication time between adjacent fractures are demonstrated through analytical calculations and reservoir simulations in a typical well setting; nearly 100% recovery is achieved in the reservoir units between the fractures in a miscible flooding process. Second, actual reservoir conditions are incorporated in our study, focusing on direct fracture communications; the effects are demonstrated, and comparisons among different methods are made. Finally, potential challenges in operations are summarized and current technologies are reviewed; the gaps between the current settings and the required settings are demonstrated. Economic discussions are made, indicating positive scenarios with large tolerances. With the rapid development of tight oil reservoirs, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies are urgently required to improve the recovery factor beyond primary depletion. An effective flooding process may be conducted if the hydraulic fractures can be used as injection and production ports. As a first attempt to envision an inter-fracture flooding process, key aspects are defined and examined, showing promising results. Inter-fracture gas flooding may become a standard secondary recovery technique for tight oil reservoirs and add significant reserves.

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Shale Frac Designs Move to Just-Good-Enough Proppant Economics

Melcher¹,

Mayerhofer²,

Agarwal³

et al. 2020

Day 2 Wed, February 05, 2020

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Selecting appropriate proppants is an important part of hydraulic fracture completion design. Proppant selection choices have dramatically increased in recent years as regional sands have become the proppant of choice in many liquid-rich shale plays. But are these new proppants the best long-term choices to maximize production? Do they provide the best well economics? The paper presents a brief historical perspective on proppant selection followed by various detailed studies of how different proppant types have been performing in various unconventional basins (Williston, Permian, Eagle Ford, Powder River and DJ) along with economic analyses. As the shale revolution pushed into lower-quality reservoirs, the concept of dimensionless conductivity has pushed our industry to use ever lower-quality materials – away from ceramics and resin-coated proppant to white sand in some Rocky Mountain plays and more recently from white sand to regional sand in the Permian and Eagle Ford plays. Further, we compare early-to late-time production response and economics in liquid-rich wells where proppant type changed. The performance of various proppant types and mesh sizes is evaluated using a combination of different techniques, including big data multi-variate statistics, lab conductivity testing, detailed fracture and reservoir modeling, as well as direct well group comparisons. The results of these techniques are then combined with economic analyses to provide a perspective on proppant selection criteria. The comparisons are anchored to permeability estimates from production history matching and DFITs and thousands of wellsite proppant conductivity tests to determine dimensionless conductivity estimates that best approach what is obtained in the field. Proppant selection is typically based on crush resistance to stress loading and fracture conductivity under various flow conditions while having the lowest possible cost. However, dimensionless fracture conductivity is the main driver of well performance as it relates to proppant selection since it includes the relationship of fracture conductivity provided by the proppant relative to the actual flow capacity of the rock (the product of permeability and effective fracture length), which is supported by the production analyses in the paper. The paper shows how much fracture conductivity is adequate for a given effective fracture length and reservoir permeability and then looks at the economics of achieving this "just-good -enough" target conductivity, either through less proppant mass with higher-cost proppants or more proppant mass with-lower cost proppants, as well as mesh size considerations. This paper does not rely on a single technique for proppant selection but uses a combination of various data sources, analysis techniques and economic criteria to provide a more holistic approach to proppant selection.

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Evolving Completion Designs to Optimize Well Productivity from a Low Permeability Oil Sandstone Turner Reservoir in the Powder River Basin—One Operator's Experience

Cited by 5 publications

References 8 publications

Multi-objective optimization and experiment of nylon cord rubber in expandable packer

Multi-objective optimization and experiment of nylon cord rubber in expandable packer

Tight Oil EOR through Inter-Fracture Gas Flooding within a Single Horizontal Well

Shale Frac Designs Move to Just-Good-Enough Proppant Economics

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