Leveraging Fractured Well Performance With Economics Modeling to Increase Expected Value: A Tool For Strategic Decisions

Abstract

In recent years, well performance from tight reservoirs in the Delaware Basin has been improving due to enhanced completion practices, better reservoir targeting and improved well designs in the region. One of the key components to the enhanced completion practices has been the implementation of progressively longer laterals. The rate of increase in lateral lengths have slightly slowed in recent years, as operators approach the point of no additional value creation as the well costs supersede the production gained from longer wells. This paper presents a tool created to evaluate the performance and economics of a given well given different reservoir, fluid, well design and completion parameters. The tool is also a probabilistic model that can quantify the impact of input parameters that the user feels uncertain about. As a result, it can provide management teams with an approach to make capital decisions under uncertainty. The proposed methodology presented in this paper is repeatable for different tight rock formations across different basins. An example of the tool's capability is demonstrated in this paper using an asset profile typical of the Delaware Basin's Wolfcamp A.