New Dynamic Rock Test System to Assist in Planning and Creating Multidirectional Fractures

Abstract

In the oil field, rock testing (beyond standard core analyses) is generally limited to three classes-flow tests to determine the production characteristics of the rock in question, chemical tests to determine reactivity of the rocks, and testing the mechanical qualities of the rock to determine the resistance of the rock to forceful intrusions, such as drilling, perforating, and stimulations. Tests to determine mechanical qualities are mostly limited to static or steady state conditions; for example, Young's moduli and Poisson's ratio measurements, compressive strengths, tensile strengths, or anything that offers easily understood and useful data.This paper discusses the creation of a new test process in which time is used as an aspect of the rock mechanics science in the oil field. For example, a question such as "how much pressure is required to fracture the rock" is henceforth replaced by a question such as "how long does it take for the rock face to move from point 'A' to point 'B'?" To do so, rock testing facilities must be reformulated to include accurate motion monitors and sound detection for live capturing of events within the rock at accurate time steps, such as microseisms, etc. The paper also discusses the use of this technology to plan and create different methods of fracture stimulating a formation; in particular, creating multidirectional fractures to maximize well production is discussed.

A Novel Hydraulic Fracturing Technique Greatly Improves Hydrocarbon Recovery Through the Use of Temporary Beneficial Changes in Stress Anisotropy

“…In the pilot project, a few sets of rocks were tested using a test device that is functionally similar to the one shown in Fig. 6 (Surjaatmadja et al 2014a(Surjaatmadja et al , 2014b(Surjaatmadja et al , 2014c. A large center rock cut precisely to 5 ϫ 5 ϫ 17.5 in.…”

“…It was quite common for hydrocarbons to be discovered at depths less than 4,000 ft, and performing simple fracture stimulations was usually sufficient to obtain acceptable production (Surjaatmadja 2007a(Surjaatmadja , 2007b(Surjaatmadja , 2007c(Surjaatmadja , 2008(Surjaatmadja , 2010Lewis and Surjaatmadja 2015). However, as shallow formations became less productive and deeper formations were explored, finding new producing areas in a known producing formation could be described as Љhit and missЉ (Surjaatmadja et al 2003), meaning that luck was often a factor. Fig.…”