FRACTURING PLANS AND REALITY
OFTEN LOOK REALLY DIFFERENT
After fracturing, one perforation in the casing has grown large due to erosion while the other has hardly changed.
The silver stripe is a reference line for measuring the area by EV Offshore. Source: SPE 189851.
G ood diagnostic testing is often
painstaking, time-consuming, and
costly, but recent studies suggest that a
lack of knowledge can be even costlier.
According to several recent technical
papers, hydraulic fracturing often miss-
es its target, and productive early wells
in stacked plays may be the template for
development plans that leave a lot of
hydrocarbons stranded.
Shell, Devon, and Anadarko have
deployed multiple tools in the field
because “no single fracture diagnostic
30
JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
and Matt Zborowski, JPT Technology Writer
can answer all the questions,” said Gus-
tavo Ugueto, senior staff petrophysical
engineer for Shell, during a presenta-
tion at the recent SPE Hydraulic Frac-
turing Technical Conference, where all
these papers were presented.
The operators behind those papers
combined data from multiple diagnostic
tools to confirm potential problems that
could significantly alter future produc-
tion if not addressed.
Devon considered how best to devel-
op stacked zones in the Meramec for-
Stephen Rassenfoss,
mation, in Oklahoma and found that
efficient development required differ-
ent approaches at different levels. The
upper zone was geologically isolated
and had to be developed separately. The
two lower zones required a common
development plan to ensure the area
fractured could make contact with the
productive rock from the top to the bot-
tom on those zones.
To estimate the area effectively
drained by a single well, Devon used
an emerging technology, proppant
JPT • MARCH 2018
 Hydraulic Fracturing

treated so it could be electrically stim-
ulated, making it possible to image
the propped fractures likely to be the
most productive.
That was an indication of the appe-
tite for new tools that can measure the
unique DNA in well bacteria to map
fluids in wells, or analyze what per-
forations are stimulated by measur-
ing how much they erode. Anadarko
is working with Biota Technology to
use DNA sequencing to identify the
many fluids found in and around its
wells and then use those markers to
understand the interconnections in
its reservoirs.
“There is a lot to learn from our
side, and hence our partnership with
Biota has been critical,” said Jose
Silva, Anadarko’s lead business strate-
gist, advanced analytics and emerging
technologies. “We’re trying to get bet-
ter at it from a data science perspec-
tive, and we’re leveraging the under-
standing (of) all the databases that
this particular company is building
on its own.”
Companies asked EV Offshore to cre-
ate automated systems to image and
analyze the hundreds of perforations in
hopes that the erosion caused by frac-
turing can tell them where the fluids and
proppant are flowing.
Problems identified do not always
come with solutions. Shell’s testing
shows that nearly half the time when it
is fracturing one stage, the fluid actu-
ally flowed outside the wellbore to
other stages instead. While that work
(SPE 189842) was based on a fractur-
ing design not widely used in shale,
known as single entry because it frac-
tures one spot per stage, other diag-
nostic testing has shown the same
problems for widely used plug and
perf treatments.
“You should be bothered by this. It
happens very frequently in plug and
perf,” Ugueto told the audience of frac-
turing professionals at the conference.
He pointed out there are some wells
with no leaking stages and companies
need to work together to solve a prob-
lem that is reducing the effectiveness of
fracturing. “We need to get our heads
together and figure it out. It is eating
our lunch,” he said.

Hydraulic Fracturing Going Sideways

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
Heel
Fracturing plans offer a vision of high-pressure slurries of water Slurry Path
and sand shooting out of each perforation creating a dense, even
array of fractures around a wellbore.
In reality, nearly half of the stages observed by Shell’s diagnostic
tests started out with the fluid taking a sharp turn and heading Sleeve 16
Area of
down along the outside of the wellbore. Instead of shooting out high DAS
through a sliding sleeve and fracturing the reservoir, the fluid energy
flowed between the cement and the rock toward the end (toe) of
the well, then jumped back into the casing further down the well
before flowing out into a fracture. Sleeve 15
An illustration showed how fluid injected in stages 15 and 16
traveled down to stages 8 and 9 (Fig. 1). That could leave one
stage under-stimulated while feeding a super frac down the well
growing far past the productive rock to where it could threaten
other wells nearby.
Previous studies have shown that leaking is a problem. In 42% of
the stages, the fluid escaped down the well toward the toe, while Sleeve 9 DTS cools
moving up the well (toward the heel) 6% of the time. down until
Pressure gauges and fiber optic cables tracked pressure and last point
temperature changes caused by the injected fluid. Temperature of injection
changes show where the formation temperature is reduced by
the cooler injected fluid, and the cables hearing the sounds of Sleeve 8
fracturing offer another indication of whether fluid is flowing. In
some instances, the indications of leaking grew stronger over time,
suggesting “progressive erosion of the cement behind the casing
during the treatment.” Toe
Multiple data streams provided a level of certainty about what
is going on and filled gaps left by other sensors. “To understand
well construction problems, no single fracturing diagnostic can Fig. 1—How fluid reacted in the
answer all the questions,” Ugueto said. Shell case.

JPT • MARCH 2018 31

 Hydraulic Fracturing
Getting More out of Stacked Zones
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
An early well that is a prolific producer can be a poor
model for future drilling within a play with stacked
zones. The potential downside is that strong early flow
may be depleting multiple zones. Production from
later wells drilled nearby is likely to suffer because the
stimulated rock is in competition with older wells that
have reduced both the oil and gas present, and the
pressure needed for production.
Devon explained in a technical paper at the hydraulic
fracturing conference (SPE 189835) how it used multiple
diagnostic tests to analyze multiple zones in the
Meramec formation within the STACK play in Oklahoma
to maximize the ultimate recovery there.
Putting a horizontal well in each one of them would
have been a bad investment because there was a
good chance that the wells would be producing from
overlapping areas. “It is rare you can develop one
interval in a stacked play and effectively drain all
of the hydrocarbon in place,” said Kyle Haustveit, a
completions engineer for Devon Energy.
But the testing showed that is not always the case.
The top layer did require a separate well because it
was isolated from other zones. Haustveit presented
a paper on how Devon used multiple tests to see if
three stacked layers were connected, and then try to
determine how best to drill and complete wells based
on whether the zones communicate or not.
That required a significant investment in time and
money—with two wells drilled and multiple diagnostic
tests, including one using emerging technology. What
was learned will be used to develop wells over a wide
area of the formation.
“The properties are going for high dollar amounts we
need to optimize” in development plans, he said, while
Electrically charged proppant was used to image the propped areas around a well in Oklahoma. The red area
shows the highest concentration of proppant. Source: SPE 189835.
34
presenting a paper on a testing program that sought to
understand the interactions among three stacked zones.
To see if pressure in one zone affects another,
Devon used dynamic fracture injection tests (DFITs).
It measures whether small volumes of fluid injected
into a formation at one location causes a measurable
response elsewhere. In this case, it showed that a
thin section of low-permeability rock was acting as
a barrier between the top zone and the lower layers.
Those tests also yielded information needed for
fracture modeling.
When it was clear that production from one of the
lower zones would draw from the other, the Devon team
began trying to figure out what completion design was
needed to develop fractures tall enough to efficiently
drain the two-zone area. It went to great ends to check
predictions of the fracture models, which incorporated
DFITs estimates, core test results, and well logs (open
hole quad combo). The Devon team wanted to be sure
the fracture network created would likely reach the
entire interval.
To verify the model’s predictions of fracture
growth, Devon used both a proven technology during
fracturing—injecting radioactive proppant tracer that
could be observed while logging—plus a new one—
electrically conductive proppant observed by surface
sensor. The dimensions indicated by the radioactive
particles were confirmed by the new technology from
Carbo Ceramics, which also offered a 3D image showing
the extent of the propped fractures.
Devon also equipped an offset vertical well with
multiple downhole pressure gauges to evaluate how
viscous the fracturing fluid needed to be to ensure the
needed fracture height.
JPT • MARCH 2018
 Hydraulic Fracturing

Seeking Insights in Microbes, DNA, and Rocks

Matt Zborowski, JPT Technology Writer

Anadarko Petroleum is Formation A Landed Wells Formation B Landed Wells

building an expanding 1.00
database of microbe DNA to
help it map fluid movements
and the source of production

Estimated Mixing Proportion

in the Delaware Basin. 0.75
Along with Biota
Technology, which brings
the genetic expertise,
Anadarko is looking at 0.50
adding biological data to
the geological information
used to make drilling and
0.25
development decisions.
“About a year ago or
so, the team at Biota
[Technology] introduced us to 0.00
the idea that DNA sequencing
Well14
Well19
Well9
Well10
Well20
Well16
Well1
Well15
Well29
Well2
Well28
Well5
Well26
Well12
Well18
Well31
Well32
Well33
Well17
Well 30
Well 21
Well3
Well25
Well6
Well8
Well11
can be applied to oil and
gas problems in not only
rock samples from cuttings Formation A Formation B
or cores but also over time
through fluids produced
from our wellbores,” said Jose Silva, Anadarko’s lead Anadarko is working on correlating changes in
business strategist, advanced analytics and emerging microbial populations to its geological information. “If
technologies, while presenting a paper at the SPE these microbes live on fluids that are downhole, can we
Hydraulic Fracturing Conference (SPE 189846). then find a way of correlating those with formations
Since then, Anadarko has started a growing DNA so that later on we can start asking more interesting
data gathering program in the Delaware basins as questions around, ‘Where should I land my wells… and
it tries to figure out ways to use this bioinformatics can I see those same microbial populations along those
data to improve how it manages drilling, completions, laterals?’” Silva asked.
and production. “If we can grasp that, then I could try to affect the way
“We didn’t have an understanding of what microbial I complete a well, and I could try to affect the way I’m
populations could do for us,” Silva said. However, “by the spacing my wells. And if I could touch either of those
time we wrote the paper, we had already applied this two things or both together, those really quickly become
technique of acquiring a new dataset on 33 wells in the billion-dollar opportunities for our company in the case
Delaware Basin,” he said. “I can say that, at the moment, of free cash flow,” he said.
this is going to scale up all the way to around 200 wells.” If the microbes in the fluids found in one well are
Samples of water, oil, and well cuttings were gathered found in another nearby in a different formation that
by mud loggers and sent to Biota’s labs, where DNA could mean they are producing from the same rock.
was extracted and sequenced to produce thousands of Samples of produced fluids were taken from 26 wells,
reads per sample. The millions of columns of added data with the team observing that some wells landed in one
presented an IT challenge and an opportunity. formation produced mainly from the other formation
and vice versa.
“This is not a silver bullet,” Silva emphasized. “It’s
Data Analytics about integrating this dataset with our petrophysical
and Modeling
understanding of the field, our reservoir modeling
capabilities, any other pieces of information that we
have, plus all the data science components so that we
DNA Diagnostics can separate noise from signal.”
Going forward, Silva said Anadarko sees “a lot of
value in continuing this program. So we are going all
Petrophysical Field Tests and out definitely on one of our assets, and we are thinking
and Reservoir Production that we should go ahead and start collection on other
Modeling Data
formations and other basins.”

36 JPT • MARCH 2018

 Hydraulic Fracturing

Erosion as a Fracturing Indicator

Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

It is common knowledge that some

perforations take much of the fluid and grow
into large fractures while other openings
12,850
along the well never grow at all.
There is no way to image the path followed
by the individual cracks created by hydraulic
fracturing but it is possible to see where
they start. The big ones likely grew from 13,100

perforations where the grinding force of

the high pressure slurries of water and

Measured Depth (ft)

sand injected for fracturing have turned
carved, round holes into large, often- 13,350
jagged openings.
Compared with methods such as
microseismic imaging, this seems intuitive.
More erosion means more sand and water 13,600
was flowing in. If you see a big hole, that
zone is stimulated, said Jeff Whittaker, a sales
manager for EV Offshore, who delivered a
paper on the work the company has done 13,850
imaging and analyzing perforation erosion
in unconventional formations (SPE 189851).
As with other downhole diagnostics, the
interpretation is more complicated, he said. –60°
EV got into the business several years
ago when shale operators asked if the
company could adapt its tools to cost-effectively image,
measure, and analyze the hundreds of perforations shot
in shale wells.
Downhole imaging has been around for years. It has
become more useful with digital equipment able to stand
up to higher temperatures and pressures. The current
maximums for EV is 2750 F and 15,000 psi, though high
specification equipment is available.
The company’s high definition pictures show how
rough-edged, round openings created by shaped
charges can be quickly sand-blasted into smooth-edged,
elongated shapes as much as 10 times the original
volume, he said.
EV measures the dimensions and shape of each image,
which is identified based on its location in the well and its
position (phase) relative to the high side of hole.
The data confirms previous studies showing that in
stages with multiple perforation clusters, the first cluster
reached by the fluid in any stage is likely to grow the
largest. More interestingly, the displays show there can
be wide variations among the perforations within each
cluster based on their position. Holes at the bottom of
the well are more likely to grow significantly than ones at
the top of the casing.
One explanation for why perforations at the bottom
grow larger goes back to their creation. Perforation
guns are run on coiled tubing strings which lie low in the
casing. The shots pointed, which are right on top of the
casing, create larger holes at the bottom than the shaped
0° 60° 120° 180° 240° 300° 360°
Perforation phase (180°=low side of wellbore)
The bubbles represent the size of perforation openings
after fracturing. Many of the biggest are found at the
bottom of the casing. Source: SPE 189851.
charges aimed at the top that travel further. Bigger holes
are likely to take in more fluid, leading to greater erosion
and greater potential fracture growth.
The paper covered a case study where the client
imaged the perforations before and after fracturing.
The before pictures are sometimes skipped because
of the time required to do an imaging run, which adds
to the cost. In those cases, the initial perforation hole
size is typically based on surface tests, where the pipe
specification and conditions often do not replicate what
is in the well.
Erosion is a direct indicator of what has flowed out
through the hole, but not necessarily a measure of future
oil and gas flowing out of it.
“Operators are using this technology, in conjunction
with other diagnostic data,” to evaluate how their
perforation clusters are performing and how to do
better, said Glyn Roberts, a technical specialist for EV
who wrote the paper.
The service has grown significantly over the past year.
“We are currently able to image about 240 perforations
a day,” Whittaker said, “but EV is actively developing
technology to significantly speed up the acquisition
phase to optimize the process.”

JPT • MARCH 2018 37

 Hydraulic Fracturing
Digging Up New Information
On What Fractures Really Look Like
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor
D uring a panel discussion on what
fractures look like, one expert
added a significant qualifier to the title:
what they “may look like.”
That addition by Roberto Suarez-
Rivera, scientific advisor for W.D. Von
Gonten & Co., was in keeping with a dis-
cussion at the SPE Hydraulic Fractur-
ing Technology Conference that offered
ample evidence that when hydraulic
fracturing is closely examined, results
often vary from expectations.
He followed a presentation by Conoco­
Phillips that offered multiple exam-
ples of why experts need to be cautious
about their pronouncements. The rare
study gathered samples of fractured rock
around a well, among many other tests.
A conference technical paper (URTeC
2670034) described its findings as “very
different from the simple view of the
stimulated reservoir volume that are
commonly modeled or predicted with
current fracture models.”
For example, when the authors col-
lected the core samples, they were sur-
prised that the rough surfaces of the
cracks held little of the sand injected in
Pressure Gauge
Four observation wells (names beginning with S) were drilled by ConocoPhillips
to monitor and sample fracturing in an Eagle Ford production well (P3).
Source: URTeC 2670034.
38
the nearby well to prop open fractures
to ensure continued production.
“There is sparse evidence of abun-
dant proppant beyond 75 ft,” said Kevin
T. Raterman, director of reservoir engi-
neering technology for ConocoPhillips,
who was involved in the project.
That is significant because propped
fractures are thought to be the source
of much of what is produced. This study
and others are raising questions about
where the oil and gas is coming from
and where all the proppant is going.
Even with five observation wells
equipped with the latest monitoring
equipment, ConocoPhillip’s team was
left wanting more. When Raterman was
asked where all that proppant went,
his response was, “I do not think I can
answer that. This volume (of reservoir)
was drastically under-sampled,” he said.
The problem was the closest well was
30 ft above the well fractured and 75 ft
beyond it. The company did not get sam-
ples from beneath the well, and Rater-
man would like to look at samples closer
to it. Getting close to producing wells is
risky, but he hoped that someday some-
S3_ST02
S3_ST01
S3
P3
S3_ST03
one “would have the courage to drill a
well that intersects another well.”
That brave soul would also need deep
pockets. The cost is likely in the tens of
millions of dollars and the high level of
technical expertise is a barrier to these
projects. But, “Do you know anything
without taking core?” asked Stephen
Holditch, a professor at Texas A&M Uni-
versity who led the panel.
Since that 2014 test in the Eagle Ford,
a lot has changed as the center of the
unconventional universe has shifted to
the Permian Basin and the industry used
the downturn after the oil price collapse
to revamp its completions methods.
In the past couple of years, a joint
industry project with US government
support built a fracturing test site in the
Permian. The Permian Hydraulic Frac-
turing Test Site (HFTS) led by ­Laredo
Petroleum, had a budget of $25  mil-
lion with backing from 10 oil and ser-
vice companies and the US Depart-
ment of Energy’s National Energy
Technology Laboratory.
That was likely a smaller budget than
the ConocoPhillips’ test had, which
drilled more wells at a time when ser-
vice costs were higher. The Permian test
used a slanted observation well to col-
lect nearly 600 ft of core samples and
data from two wells, one section near a
producing well in the upper Wolfcamp,
and the other near a lower Wolfcamp
well, according to a technical paper
delivered at another industry confer-
ence (URTeC 2697483).
The paper did not announce the
group’s results—it plans to do so this
year at the URTeC conference in Hous-
ton in July. Chances are it will not con-
firm the status quo.
“Whenever we directly measure cre-
ated hydraulic fractures or the stimu-
lated reservoir volume, we are always
surprised and our mental images are
altered and begin to change,” said Kent
JPT • MARCH 2018

UWC Core
Intervals 1-4
AUWC Well
AMWC Well
MWC Core
Intervals 5 & 6
SCW Well
Diagram shows how a single slant well (SCW) was used to collect core
samples from two production wells (AUWC, AMWC) at the Permian Hydraulic
Fracturing Test Site. Source: URTeC 2697483.
Perry, executive director of the Gas lips paper said, “The apparent side-by-
Technology Institute, who is involved in side propagation of closely spaced, near
the HFTS project. parallel hydraulic fractures also differs
from the output of currently accept-
Growth Options ed fracture models and may call into
A theme in these rare studies is that the question the role of stress shadowing in
picture of “the number, location, dimen- hydraulic fracture propagation.”
sions, and characteristics of the created
fractures, and altered natural fractures, Many Looks
is very complex,” Perry said. An artist asked to create a realistic pic-
The ConocoPhillips study observed ture of a typical fracture would like-
that “fractures tend to swarm. It is not ly have been frustrated by the discus-
unusual to find 15 to 20 fractures in sion about what fractures look like.
10–15 ft,” Raterman said. And it con- The comments after all were aimed at
cluded that much of the permeabili- engineers paid to generate production,
ty created that led to production was not pictures.
due to hydraulically created fractures. These small cracks in the rock, which
Which is not to say that fracture for- are small compared with their impact,
mation was dictated by the fracturing can travel thousands of feet and their
design. Raterman said that “there is a appearance changes based on multiple
weak correlation in the fracture swarms variables, not all of which are known.
and the fracture spacing.” Suarez-Rivera highlighted seven fac-
At the hydraulic fracturing confer- tors that can alter fracture develop-
ence, Shell reported that fluids injected ment, from design decisions, like the
in one stage frequently traveled side- number and spacing of fracture stag-
ways outside and then inside the cas- es, to geologic factors, to how the nat-
ing, ultimately entering the formation ural stresses direct fracture growth.
through an opening down the well. Some observations resist explanation.
High-pressure injection in one stage Propped fractures have been found far
is thought to create stress shadows that from wells in places sand should never
can bend and stunt the growth of frac- reach. “It might not happen everywhere
tures in later stages. But the ConocoPhil- but it happens,” he said.
JPT • MARCH 2018
Hydraulic Fracturing
The path of fractures is affected
by rock layering, weak intersections
between layers, and the intersection
of the many rock layers that can use
step overs, where the path of a frac-
ture takes a short sideways detour
between the layers before returning to
its original direction.
Injected fluid is likely to follow weak
spots in the laminations between layers,
making fractures more likely to grow
out rather than up, said Suarez-Rivera.
The ConocoPhillips study observed that
fracture networks tended to be wider
than taller.
Fracture growth is also controlled by
local stresses. For example, if the mini-
mum and maximum horizontal stress is
nearly equal, fracture growth is expect-
ed to be more complex, increasing the
appetite for more detailed maps of
the stresses.
Mark Zoback, a professor at Stanford
University who was the third speak-
er on the panel, is working on feeding
that appetite with a new, more detailed
stress map. The project for Zoback,
whose name has long been associated
with a widely used map showing geo-
logic stress trends, has new data related
to his other claim to fame: as an expert
in induced seismicity—earthquakes
linked to factors such as deep under-
ground water disposal.
The surge in earthquake activity in
Oklahoma and nearby oil producing
states has led to stepped-up seismic
monitoring producing the raw material
for local stress maps, including a new
one of the Permian from Zoback.
The Delaware basin in the western
Permian “is one of the most interest-
ing states of stress I have seen” with
the axes of the minimum and maximum
stress rotating from north to south,
Zoback said. In contrast, the Midland
basin is stable.
For those working in the field, or on
models, there is a lot more data avail-
able now. The hard part is keeping up
with it. “While much progress has been
made, the complexity has continued to
increase faster than modeling capabil-
ity,” Perry said.
39
 Hydraulic Fracturing

They Are Not Drilling Shale Wells

Like They Used To
Stephen Rassenfoss, JPT Emerging Technology Senior Editor

M aintaining production in the shale

business is getting increasingly
costly because new wells in major US
shale plays are falling short of output
from the parent wells.
A study of 10 major US basins by
Schlumberger (SPE 189875) found that
while the parent and child wells looked
comparable at first glance—about half
of new wells outperform the older wells
and vice versa—the picture changes
when the results are adjusted for the
higher cost of drilling and fracturing
new wells.
This is a pressing issue in the shale
sector where constant drilling is
required to replace short-lived older
wells, which is leading to increasingly
dense development.
When the results remove the ben-
efit of the longer laterals and bigger
loads of sand pumped now, the par-
ent wells outperform the next genera-
tion about 70% of the time, accord-
100%
90%
80%
Percentage of New Wells Drilled
ing to the study discussed at the SPE
Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Con-
ference. It defined a child well as
one drilled at least 1 year after the
parent well.
The results fall far short of the expec-
tations of a few years ago when the
industry assumed that ever-improving
fracturing technology would mean
ever-rising output. Instead, operators
are spending more and more just to
stay even.
“They are pumping way bigger frac
jobs in child wells to help compensate”
for the problems created by parent
well production, said Garrett Lindsay,
a senior production reservoir engineer
for Schlumberger, who delivered the
paper. While the geology of these for-
mations varies, the older-well advantage
remains fairly consistent, ranging from
a high of near 80% in the Wolfcamp and
Haynesville to 60% in the Bone Springs,
after normalization.
Eagle Ford
Parent
Child
The problem is that the older wells are
depleting the hydrocarbons and the res-
ervoir pressure required to get them out
of this ultratight rock. Fracturing plans
aim to stimulate a limited area around
a well, but the reality shown in multiple
presentations at the fracturing confer-
ence show fractures regularly extending
out thousands of feet.
New wells inevitably end up compet-
ing with older wells for oil and gas as
fractures extend into the depleted pres-
sure zone around that well.
Time is not on the side of the young-
er generation of wells. When they com-
pared the relation between well genera-
tions, where there is a 3-year gap, “there
is still a significant chance a child well
completion will perform better.” After 6
years, the completion for the child well
“will need to be larger to perform on par
with the parent well.”
This will become an increasingly
important problem as dense develop-
ment means more tightly spaced pro-
duction. In the Eagle Ford, those lines
already have crossed and a wide gap
has developed.

Limited Options
70% The paper considered a variety of ways
to reduce this advantage, but there is
60%
no fixing the big problem: the depletion
50% caused by older wells.
Lindsay cautioned that, in some cases,
40% operators will need to focus on a “calibra-
tion of expectations” in line with what
30%
the available technology can deliver.
20% Wider well spacing reduces the par-
ent well edge, but not hugely. When
10%
wells are spaced 1,000 ft or less apart,
0% Bakken parent wells outperform the
Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 Q2 Q4 child wells 74% of the time, when pro-
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 duction is normalized. When they
are 2,000–2,500 ft apart, 71% per-
In the Eagle Ford, denser development means that in the future the number form better.
of child wells is likely to exceed the number of higher-producing parent wells. In retrospect, it would have helped if
Source: SPE 189875. early developers concentrated develop-

40 JPT • MARCH 2018

 Hydraulic Fracturing

ment, leaving significant undeveloped 100% B12 Oil

Percentage of Iterations
sections for later drilling. But com­ 90%
B12 Oil/lbm/ft
panies rushing to lock up leases by drill­ 80%
70% 74% 74%
ing wells had other priorities. 73% 71%
60%
Improved completion designs could
50% 55%
narrow the gap. Adding customized 51% 49% 51% 51% 52% 48%
40% 45%
designs and incremental improvements 30%
might help, but they are hard to deploy 20% 25% 26% 27% 29%
in operations built to mass produce 10%
wells using standardized plans. 0%
Child Parent Child Parent Child Parent Child Parent
Tightly controlling fracturing using Wells Wells Wells Wells Wells Wells Wells Wells
diversion, which is supposed to block ≤1,000 ft 1,000–1,500 ft 1,500–2,000 ft 2,000–2,500 ft
off dominant fractures to allow more (1,009) (933) (1,042) (1,183)
equal growth and effective stimula­ Well Spacing Distance Ranges (Total Iterations), ft
tion, might be helping. But comments
by engineers at the conference offered Even when new shale wells are widely spaced, older wells outperform
mixed reviews. them when the results are adjusted according to a study by Schlumberger.
Given the fact that the industry is still Source: SPE 189875.
producing less than 10% of the oil in
the ground indicates that there is a lot could push up ultimate recovery rates, Experience shows they can deliver
of room for improvement. but the discussion at the conference significantly more production in some
Production­extending methods, such indicates the industry is still trying to wells, but not all wells, and the cost can
as refracturing older wells or adding find the right formula to consistently sometimes be too high to justify the
chemicals able to enhance production, apply these approaches. added output, Lindsay said. JPT

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