How Does Well Fracturing Work to Stimulate

Production?

Stimulation techniques are used to encourage production to flow from the reservoir
rocks. Hydrocarbons are located in the spaces between pores of reservoir rock.
Production is achieved when these pore spaces are connected and permeability, or
the ability to transmit fluids, is such that the hydrocarbons flow out of the rock and
into the well. In some reservoirs, the rocks have low permeability, and the
hydrocarbons cannot be extracted for production. Other times, production is
hampered by formation damage, when drilling into the reservoir rock lessens
permeability.

Production can be achieved in these wells via a production stimulation method called
well fracturing. Performed above the reservoir formation fracture pressure, well
fracturing causes a highly conductive flow path between the reservoir and the
wellbore. Well fracturing actually breaks or splits the reservoir rock open to
encourage hydrocarbons to flow from the rocks into the well.

A Well Before and After FracturingSource: Austin Exploration Limited

Performed after the well has been completed, or after the casing, tubing and
perforations have been applied, well fracturing has evolved over time. Starting in the
1860s and used through the 1940s, explosive fracturing used to be the most
common method of well fracturing. Explosive fracturing, also known as well shooting,
detonated an explosive within the well to break the reservoir rocks.

Successful at stimulating production, yet dangerous, explosive fracturing introduced

liquid nitrogen into the well via a tin cylinder referred to as a torpedo. The torpedo
was lowered into the wellbore and detonated. The explosion created a huge hole that
was then cleaned out and completed as an openhole, leaving the bottom of the well
open into the reservoir.

Developed in the late 1940s, hydraulic fracturing, also known as a frac job, is the
practice of injecting a well with large amounts of frac fluids under high pressure in
order to break the rocks. Performed on both openhole and cased-well perforations,
hydraulic fracturing quickly replaced explosive fracturing.
Used in a gel-like state, frac fluids consist of water and polymers, or long organic
molecules that form a thick liquid. Both oil-based and foam-based frac fluids use
nitrogen bubbles to achieve the fracture. Carbon dioxide can be used, as well, to
minimize formation damage.

A frac job is performed in three steps. First, a large amount of frac fluids are pumped
into the well. The high-pressure of the frac fluids and the continual pumping
increases the pressure in the well, overcoming the strength of the reservoir rocks to
break them apart. Fracing fluids are pumped into the well until the rocks are cracked
to a desired length.

Different Types of ProppantsSource: Hexion

Then, frac fluid and propping agents are introduced into the well to extend the breaks
and pack them with proppants, or small spheres composed of quartz sand grains,
ceramic spheres or aluminum oxide pellets, that hold the fractures open after
pumping has ceased. This is important, because then the hydrocarbons can flow
through the open cracks in the reservoir rocks. Finally, the well is back flushed to
remove the frac fluids.

Increasing both the rate of production and the overall production of a well, hydraulic
fracturing is best employed in medium and hard formations. In fact, hydraulic
fracturing is used in almost all tight gas sand reservoirs. In onshore US wells,
approximately 50% of the gas wells and 30% of the oil wells are fraced.
Hydraulic fracturing can increase the production of a well by 1.5 to 30 times the initial
rate of flow, as well as the overall production from 5 to 15%. Also, a well can be
fraced multiple times during its production life.