Limited Communication Between Hydraulic Fracture and (Deviated) Wellbore

Veeken, Cornelis; Davies, David Roland; Walters, John Victor

doi:10.2118/18982-ms

Cited by 48 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Because HPFs dominate Gulf of Mexico (GOM) well completions where well-deviation angles established for extended-reach drilling are maintained through the productive zone, the issue of well-tofracture connectivity becomes even more serious. Veeken et al (1989) explained the importance of drilling vertically through the productive reservoir interval when the intent is to hydraulically fracture the well. Ehlig- introduced a new model for hydraulically fractured wells, hypothesizing that only those perforations in the intersection between the far-field hydraulic-fracture plane and the wellbore actually connect flow through the fracture to the well, as illustrated in Fig 1. According to this model, in deviated wells, the number of perforations connected to the fracture drops to a small value for even moderate well-deviation angles, and the skin computed using the model compares favorably with field-data observations without having to assume a small value for the proppant permeability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance-Fracture Completions

Zhang

Marongiu-Porcu

Ehlig-Economides

et al. 2010

SPE Production &Amp; Operations

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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 indicate that the fracture-to-well connection is compromised in deviated wells and lead to questions concerning whether the bulk of the flow to the well actually passes through the fracture.Distributed volumetric sources are used in this model to rigorously model a wide variety of possible fracture geometries such as an expanded wellbore because of halo effect, flow strictly through the fracture, and combined flow through a single fracture and to remaining flowing perforations not connected to the fracture. The model also includes turbulent-flow effects that may occur for radial-flow conditions in the fracture plane or in the reservoir opposite wellbore sections not connected to the fracture, along with high-velocity flow through the perforation tunnels. It also computes the effective flow area at the resulting face between the reservoir and the completion to check whether flow velocity exceeds conditions that would risk production of reservoir fines, and it estimates the screen-flow velocity on the basis of the number of flowing perforations.This comprehensive view of the HPF completion enables a thorough analysis of the risks of flowing the well at high rate. Field examples show that the new model depicts real field conditions in calculating the total skin, flow fractions, and the flux for HPF completions in high-rate gas and oil wells.Complete inflow-performance behavior for likely flow patterns for HPF wells in oil and gas reservoirs is provided.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance-Fracture Completions

Zhang

Marongiu-Porcu

Ehlig-Economides

et al. 2010

SPE Production &Amp; Operations

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“…The fracturing of deviated wellbores has been extensively studied in the laboratory by many authors. The rough fracture opening surface and the failure of a mini-fracture linkup from deviated wellbores were reported by Hallam and Last [6], Veeken et al [7], Weijers and de Pater [8]. The propagation of a hydraulic fracture from oriented perforation was also studied experimentally by El Rabaa [9] and Abass et al [10,11].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…Equation (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) can then be rearranged in terms of the dislocation density parameter A n as follows:…”

Section: Solution Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Link-up of mini-fractures from perforated holes

Yew

2015

Mechanics of Hydraulic Fracturing

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“…3), or the transverse fracture may follow a complex path (El Rabaa 1989;Daneshy 1973;Economides et al 1989;Abass et al 1996;Veeken et al 1989;Yew and Li 1988;Baumgartner at al. 1989;Hallam and Last 1990;Kim and Abas 1991), as illustrated in Fig.…”

Section: Creation Of Transverse Fracturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An alternative is to run various tests to determine not only the minimum horizontal stress but also the maximum horizontal stress. Experimental and analytical studies (El Rabaa 1989;Veeken et al 1989) have shown that the reorientation radius increases as the pumping rate gets higher. It has also been found that as the ratio of the maximum to minimum horizontal stresses gets higher, the reorientation radius gets shorter.…”

Section: Reorientation Of Fractures and Reorientation Radiusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomechanics Aspects of Multiple Fracturing of Horizontal and Vertical Wells

Soliman

East

Adams

2008

SPE Drilling &Amp; Completion

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Summary Although unstimulated horizontal wells have been successful in naturally fractured reservoirs and in reservoirs with gas- or water-coning problems, fracturing a horizontal well may be a viable option in certain situations. Because of the dependence of fracture orientation on well direction with respect to the stress field, the possibility of fracturing a horizontal well must be considered before the well is drilled. The appropriate contingency plans should be made to anticipate the possible low production from an unstimulated well. It should be remembered that fracturing a horizontal well may also dictate how the wellbore may be completed or oriented. Fracturing a horizontal well may take place in one of the following situations:Restricted vertical flow caused by low vertical permeability or the presence of shale streaks.Low formation productivity because of low formation permeability.The presence of natural fractures in a direction different from that of induced fractures. Thus, induced fractures have a high chance of intercepting the natural fractures.Low stress contrast between the pay zone and the surrounding layers. In this case, a large fracturing treatment of a vertical well would not be an acceptable option because the fracture would grow in height as well as length. Drilling a horizontal well and creating either several transverse or longitudinal fractures would allow rapid depletion of the reservoir through the fractures. Although fundamentally similar to fracturing vertical wells, fracturing horizontal wells has its unique aspects that require special attention to secure successful treatment. Differences between horizontal and vertical wells exist in areas of rock mechanics, reservoir engineering, and operational aspects. To start with, the basic rock-mechanics aspects are examined.

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Limited Communication Between Hydraulic Fracture and (Deviated) Wellbore

Cited by 48 publications

References 8 publications

Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance-Fracture Completions

Comprehensive Model for Flow Behavior of High-Performance-Fracture Completions

Link-up of mini-fractures from perforated holes

Geomechanics Aspects of Multiple Fracturing of Horizontal and Vertical Wells

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