SPE 138446

Lessons Learned Developing the Eagle Ford Shale

J. Mullen, J.C. Lowry, SPE, Halliburton; K.C. Nwabuoku, El Paso E&P

Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Tight Gas Completions Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2–3 November 2010.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed
by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or
members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The Eagle Ford shale play located in south Texas is in its infancy in terms of development compared to other shale plays in the
USA. The Barnett shale has been commercially productive since the1980s and the Haynesville has been commercially productive
since 2005, whereas the Eagle Ford has only been producing since 2009. Thus, there is significant risk involved in drilling a
horizontal Eagle Ford well because the reservoir’s characteristics change depending on the location, producing gas, gas
condensate, and oil. A few operators have successfully made the transition in the last year from vertical to horizontal-wellbore
programs in the gas window and there is a need to shorten the learning curve to successfully develop the play. One such method
involves the use of wireline logs, such as cased-hole pulsed-neutron logs (PNL), run in the lateral to determine the reservoir
characteristics and to aid in tailoring the hydraulic fracture treatment. Following this horizontal well’s completion, a review of the
mud log, cased-hole PNL, and tracer and production logs in the lateral in conjunction with the stimulation treatment was
conducted to determine which zones produced as expected and, more importantly, which zones did not produce as expected. This
paper focuses on reviewing all log data pertaining to this well in combination with the completion treatment and production to
identify possible relationships between production performance, the reservoir and the completion, and moreover to determine what
would be done differently in future wells, in addition to reviewing additional offset well-data.

Introduction
The Eagle Ford shale play is one of the most recent shale plays to be “discovered” in the United States. This is partly driven by
significant technological advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, and partly by high gas prices that were prevalent
in 2007 and early 2008, which lead to a boom in unconventional-reservoir development (particularly in the Haynesville play). In
late 2008 the first few exploration wells in the Eagle Ford were drilled in LaSalle County in the gas window of the play (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1—Lateral extent of Eagle ford shale in south Texas and location of subject well (red star).
2 SPE 138446

These early completion designs emulated a Barnett-style, water-frac stimulation treatment and had varying degrees of success. One
of the major challenges associated with trying to design a completion in this shale play is to know what type of hydrocarbons will
be produced. Fig 1 displays the general areas where the reservoir produces oil (green), high liquids (yellow), and predominately
dry gas (red).
The Eagle Ford shale lies above the Buda limestone uncomfortably overlain by the Austin Chalk. Fig. 2 illustrates a
stratigraphic column through the Eagle Ford in south Texas. This Cretaceous shale formation expands throughout a laterally
extensive area from Maverick county in the west, all the way across the state to the eastern county of Burleson, and beyond (Fig.
1). In addition to the aforementioned variation in the predominate type of hydrocarbon produced, some parts of the play are
overpressured. Furthermore, some basic structural characteristics of this shale vary significantly across the play. For example, its
gross height ranges from 20 to 500-ft thick; even its depth varies from 2,500 to 14,000 ft. Thus, understanding the local reservoir is
critical to successfully developing this unconventional reservoir, which needs to be stimulated to make the play economically
attractive.

Fig. 2—Stratigraphic column through south Texas (source unknown).

SPE 138446 3

Viewing the examples of successfully stimulated gas wells of some of the early leaders in the Eagle Ford in 2008 through mid-
2009, an operator decided to drill its first Eagle Ford well—a vertical pilot that was drilled, logged, and plugged back before
drilling a 4,000-ft lateral well (>45º) through the Eagle Ford shale in LaSalle county (Fig. 3 presents wellbore trajectory). The
wellbore was drilled in a NW-SE direction, so transverse fractures were anticipated (Soliman et al. 2004). The process consisted of
16 stages with 4 sets of perforations in most stages using the “plug-and-perf” completion method. At the time, the subject well was
completed predominately with water fracs that had been performed on the majority of gas wells drilled in the play.

Fig. 3—Subject well lateral trajectory.

Eagle Ford Shale Reservoir

Fig 4 illustrates core data of the Brinnel hardness number (BHN) for various unconventional/tight-gas plays across the USA. The
BHN is a measure of how hard a material is and it is analogous to plastic deformation. This one parameter changes significantly
across the different plays, illustrating the fact that each shale play is not a “clone of the Barnett”. Each unconventional reservoir
has specific characteristics that must be respected in the completion design for that specific shale play (Rickman et al. 2008). Fig. 4
illustrates that the Eagle Ford shale is more similar to the “softer” Haynesville shale than the hard Barnett shale. Based on this one
characteristic, a Haynesville-style frac would be preferential to a Barnett-style stimulation treatment.

Fig. 4—BHN for various unconventional/tight-gas plays across the USA.

SPE 138446 5

Calibration of Cased-Hole Data

The openhole logs in the vertical pilot hole were then used to build the CHI model for the cased hole PNL. The openhole data was
also used to build the petrophysical model that would be used to analyze the CHI data. Fig. 6b shows that the CHI–modeled,
pseudo-openhole data correlates well with the openhole-data set in the vertical pilot (Fig 6a). The data from both the inelastic and
capture-spectrum logs were compared and it was seen that there was no significant difference in the quality of the data and the
resulting analysis. Thus it was recommended that, on future lateral wells only, the capture pass be run to evaluate the formation
whilst again reducing the completion cost.

Fig. 6—(a) Vertical pilot-hole openhole data; (b) CHI model pseudo-openhole data in lateral.

In the vertical pilot well, electrical logs and mud logs were analyzed using a well-defined systematic approach (Mullen et al.
2007; Rickman et al. 2008; Kundert and Mullen 2009) to develop an accurate petrophysical model to characterize the Eagle Ford
shale in this new exploration area that could then be applied to the cased-hole PNL data in the lateral wellbore, and to other future
lateral wells in the region. This would aid in developing a completion strategy based on the well’s petrophysical characteristics,
rather than using just the mud log, to have equally distributed perforation clusters in equally distributed stages along the lateral.
Fig. 7 shows the shale-log petrophysical analysis of the lateral data. First, the organic-rich shale was identified using the
gamma ray (GR). The yields from silicon, calcium, and potassium were used for the mineral identification, as were the pseudo-
openhole density, neutron, and resistivity logs. Mineral identification is critical for completion design because the fluid effects on
the formation must be considered. Multiple other petrophysical relationships (where both mineralogy and shale-type were
considered) were used to calculate rock properties, such as Poisson’s ratio (PR) and Young’s modulus (YM). It was found that this
organic shale had a low YM of 2 to 3 106 psi, reflecting, in conjunction with the BHN, that this rock was more akin to the
Haynesville shale than the Barnett shale. Additionally, the shale-log model was used to calculate the total organic carbon (TOC),
kerogen content, free-gas volume, and rock-brittleness factor (Rickman et al. 2008), thereby grading the shale reservoir into
potential completion intervals. The more ductile rock is indicated by a green color spectrum while the brittle rock is colored red in
the brittleness factor track. The log-generated stress profile in conjunction with the rock properties was used for the completion
design to simulate the sensitivity to frac rate and fluid type. The shale-brittleness factor, mineralogy, and the closure pressure were
used to select the proppant type and mesh size. Finally, the mud log in the lateral borehole was reviewed to see the extent of any
hydrocarbon shows.
SPE 138446 5

Calibration of Cased-Hole Data

The openhole logs in the vertical pilot hole were then used to build the CHI model for the cased hole PNL. The openhole data was
also used to build the petrophysical model that would be used to analyze the CHI data. Fig. 6b shows that the CHI–modeled,
pseudo-openhole data correlates well with the openhole-data set in the vertical pilot (Fig 6a). The data from both the inelastic and
capture-spectrum logs were compared and it was seen that there was no significant difference in the quality of the data and the
resulting analysis. Thus it was recommended that, on future lateral wells only, the capture pass be run to evaluate the formation
whilst again reducing the completion cost.

Fig. 6—(a) Vertical pilot-hole openhole data; (b) CHI model pseudo-openhole data in lateral.

In the vertical pilot well, electrical logs and mud logs were analyzed using a well-defined systematic approach (Mullen et al.
2007; Rickman et al. 2008; Kundert and Mullen 2009) to develop an accurate petrophysical model to characterize the Eagle Ford
shale in this new exploration area that could then be applied to the cased-hole PNL data in the lateral wellbore, and to other future
lateral wells in the region. This would aid in developing a completion strategy based on the well’s petrophysical characteristics,
rather than using just the mud log, to have equally distributed perforation clusters in equally distributed stages along the lateral.
Fig. 7 shows the shale-log petrophysical analysis of the lateral data. First, the organic-rich shale was identified using the
gamma ray (GR). The yields from silicon, calcium, and potassium were used for the mineral identification, as were the pseudo-
openhole density, neutron, and resistivity logs. Mineral identification is critical for completion design because the fluid effects on
the formation must be considered. Multiple other petrophysical relationships (where both mineralogy and shale-type were
considered) were used to calculate rock properties, such as Poisson’s ratio (PR) and Young’s modulus (YM). It was found that this
organic shale had a low YM of 2 to 3 106 psi, reflecting, in conjunction with the BHN, that this rock was more akin to the
Haynesville shale than the Barnett shale. Additionally, the shale-log model was used to calculate the total organic carbon (TOC),
kerogen content, free-gas volume, and rock-brittleness factor (Rickman et al. 2008), thereby grading the shale reservoir into
potential completion intervals. The more ductile rock is indicated by a green color spectrum while the brittle rock is colored red in
the brittleness factor track. The log-generated stress profile in conjunction with the rock properties was used for the completion
design to simulate the sensitivity to frac rate and fluid type. The shale-brittleness factor, mineralogy, and the closure pressure were
used to select the proppant type and mesh size. Finally, the mud log in the lateral borehole was reviewed to see the extent of any
hydrocarbon shows.
6 SPE 138446

Fig. 7—CHI model PNL shale-log analysis in lateral wellbore.

Perforation intervals in the 16 frac stages were selected by looking for reservoir rock that had similar-quality rock based the
brittleness factor, stress, and Gamma ray (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8—Perforate in the “like” rock.

Completion Design
A vertical pilot hole was drilled, logged, and evaluated to determine where to drill the lateral. The measured depth of the lateral
that was drilled was 16,673 ft, with a lateral of ~4,100 ft. The wellbore configuration was 4 1/2-in. casing, 15.1 lbm/ft, with a tie-
back in the top of a liner at ~9,889 ft (TVD of the formation ~12,513 ft).

Prejob Design
The formation evaluation was a vital part of the completion design. Little stimulation or production data was available in the area,
so it was difficult to emulate other completions. Both formation evaluation and completion design for a shale reservoir requires a
different approach to that taken for conventional reservoirs because it is not a conventional porosity-permeability reservoir.
Because the subject well was this operator’s first Eagle Ford Shale completion, the fracturing design was based on a working
knowledge of their Haynesville shale play, which displayed some similar characteristics to this new shale play (porosity ranges,
low YM rock, low BHN, low brittleness factor, and high ductility). The pumping schedule was set up the same (with a series of
100-mesh sweeps with 10-lbm linear gel (3 stages) followed by linear pad and main proppant stages ranging from 0.25 to 3.0-
lbm), only scaled appropriately to the formation thickness. It was known that, in the southern region of the county where this well
was located, the formation should produce mainly gas without the condensate one would expect to the north and east of the area
location. So, it only made sense to mirror the design to a dry gas completion like the Haynesville, the only shale play in the
operator’s portfolio at the time. Thus, the well was designed with 16 stages, each stage with four sets of perforations in most stages
using the “plug-and-perf” completion method. The cased-hole shale log was used to design the treatment and pick perforations
based on criteria, such as acceptable phi-ft (porosity-ft.), TOC, stress, brittleness factor, and mineralogy, etc. (Fig. 7). Perforation
SPE 138446 7

recommendations for deviated wellbores suggest that the perforation-interval length should not exceed four wellbore diameters,
with 60° phasing or less if the maximum principle-stress orientation is unknown (Abass et al. 1994).
The pump schedule was designed to accommodate the complexity of the frac system in the near-wellbore region. The “hybrid-
type” pumping schedule (Fig. 9) (Rickman et al. 2008) consisted of a 500-gal spearhead of diesel, which helped to sweep and clear
any pipe dope and drilling-mud residue. The diesel was followed by 30,000 gallons of prepad, which created fracture geometry
ahead of three sets of 100-mesh sweeps totaling 50,000 lbm of 100-mesh sand. Transported at 80 bbl/min by five centipoises,
linear guar fluid, the 100-mesh was pumped for three important reasons. The first reason was to reduce perforation friction; the
second reason was to pack-off multiple fractures that might have competed for width, causing increased treating pressures. The
third reason for pumping 100-mesh sand was to pack off or screen out any natural fractures that could rob fluid from the main frac-
job and induce premature bridging, and ultimately pressure-out the job. After all, even the tiny bit of conductivity brought by a
material that is traditionally used for fluid-loss control can contribute and increase conductivity in a shale reservoir.

Fig. 9—Using the brittleness factor for completion design.

Following the 100-mesh sand, the fluid viscosity was increased to 11 centipoise, and the 15,000-gal main frac linear pad
begun. This stage conditioned the near-wellbore environment for the 300,000 lbm of the larger, 40/70-mesh, resin-coated proppant
that followed. During this section of the treatment, the proppant was staged up to 3 lbm/gal. At 1.25 lbm/gal, the fluid was adjusted
to 21 centipoise (base gel viscosity) borate crosslinked-guar system that is used to transport the heavier proppant-laden fluids and
create frac width for the tail end of the treatment.
On location, the frac design was finalized, the stimulation treatment performed, and both chemical and radioactive tracers were
run as part of the post-frac diagnostics to evaluate the first Eagle Ford stimulation. During each stage, a different chemical tracer
was added to the frac fluid. Water samples were then collected during the flowback. Additionally, production logs were run in the
lateral about six weeks after the well was completed. Further production logs were planned to be run after six months production to
identify which zones or intervals were contributing to production.

Monitor Treatment and Onsite Redesign

Fig. 10 shows the treatment-summary plot for Stages 3 and 7. Because the treatment pressure was so high, the concentration of
friction reducer and the amount of gel loading was increased to help alleviate some of the pressure and attain a reasonable
treatment rate. Under these given conditions, the jobs treated as predicted. Operationally, under these harsh conditions with
average pressure at 13,000 psi, it was challenging trying to keep the frac equipment running. Thus it was recommended on future
wells that larger holes be drilled at these depths and a minimum of 5.5-in casing be run. With the exception of Stages 1, 3, and 16,
all the proppant that was designed for each stage was placed (Fig. 11). Note 70% of Stage 3 proppant was placed (Table 1).
8 SPE 138446

Fig.10—(a) Summary-treatment plots for Stage 3 (b) Stage 7.

SPE 138446 9

TABLE 1—DETAILS OF 16 STAGES

PERFS 100 MESH 40/70 PROP Pt, AVG RATE, AVG TOTAL
    FROM TO TOTAL LBS PPA LBS PPA TOTAL PSI BPM BBLS
STAGE 1               16,390               16,558 168                    49,300 0.25 ‐ 0.75             217,410 0.25 ‐ 1.5             266,710               13,174 73.1               10,470
STAGE 2               16,146               16,308 162                    50,500 0.25 ‐ 1.0             300,800 0.25 ‐ 2.0             351,300               13,012 74.2               11,256
STAGE 3               15,890               16,067 177                    50,500 0.25 ‐ 1.0             174,029 0.25 ‐ 1.5             224,529               12,464 65.9                 9,961
STAGE 4               15,640               15,795 155                    53,740 0.25 ‐ 1.0             316,800 0.25 ‐ 2.0             370,540               12,782 67.0               11,513
STAGE 5               15,390               15,558 168                    56,080 0.25 ‐ 1.0             313,020 0.25 ‐ 2.0             369,100               12,926 74.0               11,304
STAGE 6               15,140               15,308 168                    52,310 0.25 ‐ 1.0             364,200 0.25 ‐ 2.0             416,510               12,565 76.0               12,100
STAGE 7               14,890               15,050 160                    50,000 0.25 ‐ 1.0             308,000 0.25 ‐ 2.0             358,000               12,792 77.6               12,087
STAGE 8               14,640               14,815 175                    55,410 0.25 ‐ 1.0             298,000 0.25 ‐ 2.0             353,410               12,975 67.0               12,309
STAGE 9               14,400               14,543 143                    51,870 0.25 ‐ 1.0             292,580 0.25 ‐ 2.0             344,450               12,837 77.5               10,859
STAGE 10               14,146               14,312 166                    54,590 0.25 ‐ 1.0             300,470 0.25 ‐ 2.25             355,060               12,859 74.2               10,670
STAGE 11               13,894               14,058 164                    50,500 0.25 ‐ 1.0             305,950 0.25 ‐ 2.5             356,450               12,775 80.2               11,056
STAGE 12               13,640               13,808 168                    44,650 0.25 ‐ 1.0             305,380 0.25 ‐ 2.0             350,030               12,804 81.4               10,934
STAGE 13               13,393               13,555 162                    52,200 0.25 ‐ 1.0             319,000 0.25 ‐ 2.25             371,200               12,958 79.7               10,996
STAGE 14               13,140               13,308 168                    47,590 0.25 ‐ 1.0             300,000 0.25 ‐ 2.0             347,590               12,941 81.0               10,904
STAGE 15               12,890               13,058 168                    50,350 0.25 ‐ 1.0             300,720 0.25 ‐ 2.0             351,070               12,837 85.8               10,978
STAGE 16               12,555               12,802 247                    56,424 0.25 ‐ 1.25             302,576 0.25 ‐ 3.0             359,000               12,930 84.0               10,789
TOTAL                  826,014         4,718,935         5,544,949       205,631.00 1218.6             178,186
Average       346,559.31         12,851.94 76.165         11,136.63

Fig. 11—Amount of proppant placed by stage.

Discussion of Treatment Results and Production Data

All 16 stages were successfully pumped using the same basic prejob design for each stage with only slight modifications. Even
under these conditions, 95% of the design rate for the majority of the stages was reached, and thus the desired frac design. The
minimum average rate pumped was 65 bbl/min. To determine how the fracture grew, microseismic analysis would be needed and
thus was recommended on future wells in the early exploration phase.
It appears that generally the stages containing larger portions of clay, which were more ductile, treated at slightly higher
pressure, and had higher breakdown pressures than the organic-rich brittle shale.
Radioactive-tracer logs (Fig. 12) showed that all 16 stages had communication between the wellbore and the reservoir. It also
appears that the majority if not all the perforation clusters had communication between the wellbore and the reservoir. Thus, the
perforation placement based on the criteria of choosing locations in “like” rock in terms of brittleness factor, stress, and GR
appeared to be successful and would be a practice worth repeating on future wells. Transverse fracture signature was also evident
from RA response.
10 SPE 138446

Fig 12. Spectrascan log with production profile—all 16 stages.

Post-stimulation well cleanup began shortly after completing the last stage. Chemical tracers confirmed all zones were flowing
during post-job clean up. The chemical tracer-flowback tests showed that all 16 stages showed conductivity (Fig. 12). Almost 40%
of the entire chemical tracer pumped was recovered after 18 days. Because Stages 8 and 9 used the same chemical tracer, their
flowback data was measured jointly. Stages 10 and 11 also used the same chemical tracer, so again those results were split
between the stages equally. Stage 4, close to the toe of the lateral, had both the highest percent of stage frac fluid recovered and the
highest percent of recovered load for frac fluid pumped. This correlates to the stage that had consistent rock characteristics across
the stage in terms of the Brittleness factor, which was the highest of all the stages. Stage 4 also had significant mud shows. In
contrast, Stages 3 and 7 had only a low percentage of stage frac fluid recovered and a low percentage of recovered load for frac
fluid pumped, which correlates with higher clay content in these stages and are not conducive to creating the enhanced
permeability field/fracture network. Only 70% of the proppant was placed in Stage 3 (Fig. 13).

Fig. 13—Chemical-flowback analysis.

SPE 138446 11

Production logs that were run after six weeks were inconclusive because the spinners became plugged with wellbore debris in
the lateral. Thus, it was recommended that the wellbore be cleaned out before running any production logs and that a multi-arm
spinner production-log tool be used.
On the gas profile result from logging, quantitative results were primarily estimated by mass rate modeling of the flowing
temperature date with moderate confidence (gas at 69% of total mass). This showed that Stage 8 had major gas production at 28%,
Stage 13 had significant gas at 11%. High water hold up was observed below approximately 15,230 ft, across the deepest section
of the lateral. It is believed that the increased water load is restricting gas production from Stages 1 through 6 (29%).
The recommendations for future completions in this area were to run a larger-diameter casing string to help enable higher
sustainable treating rates and extend the longevity of frac equipment for more efficient operations. Through data acquired from
appropriate petro physical log interpretations, a pinpoint-perforation program could enable cost savings by reducing the number of
treatments along the lateral for possibly the same production. Cleaner biopolymer-based fluid systems (Walters et al. 2009), in
conjunction with a microemulsion surfactant (Rickman and Jaripatke 2010), could increase production by minimizing gel damage
and decreasing load-recovery times, while increasing load recovery volumes. The utilization of an on-the-fly surface modifying
agent (SMA) to prevent formation fines from migrating into the pack and minimize further damage to conductivity caused by
diagnosis would be beneficial to cumulative production (Luna et al. 2008). Finally, the use of acid-soluble cement (Stegent et al.
2010) might improve fracture initiation by reducing near-wellbore tortuosity in cemented, horizontal wellbores.
Increasing perf clusters to a total of six instead of four will also open up more area in the near-wellbore area to communicate
with the formation, this will help reduce treating pressure and increase well production. A total of 6% NaCl was used as a base
fluid to stabilize formation clay; this presented logistical challenges. Sample core taken from the formation was tested to ascertain
the effectiveness or otherwise of clay substitute in stabilizing formation clay. Results show that 2% clay substitute was just as
effective as 3% KCL and 6% Nacl (Fig 14).

Fig. 14—Capillary-suction test to determine fluid sensitivity.

The formation took 3.0 ppa of proppant concentration without any entry difficulty, as seen in Fig. 15. As a result, proppant
concentration on the subsequent well completed (condensate area of the Eagle Ford) was staged from 0.25 to 5 ppa and was
completed with all stages pumped as designed.
12 SPE 138446

Fig. 15—Summary-treatment plot for Stage 16.

Production Results
After reviewing all of the data collected throughout the completion, it was determined that for this well’s geographical location,
production was comparable to that of other offset wells IP30s. Figs. 16 and 17 display offset well-production data pulled from
HPDI for dry–gas, horizontal completions in the same county in the Eagle Ford shale completed in 2008 and 2009. The subject
well (green) had seven months production. No attempt was made to normalize the production data in terms of rate/1,000 ft lateral
or number of stages completed because this information was unknown. Fig. 13 shows the offset wells positions and the bubble is
sized by the IP30. Fig. 14 shows that 75% of wells completed in 2008 and 2009 have an average daily production lower than that
of the subject well.

Fig.16—Offset wells location compared to the subject well (green). Bubble is sized by first gas production.
SPE 138446 13

Fig. 17—Offset gas average daily production compared to this well (subject well is Operator 1).

Conclusions
The following conclusions are a result of this work.
• It is recommended to drill a larger lateral hole size. A minimum 5-in casing size is recommended with a 6-perf cluster-
perforation scheme to reduce perf friction when stimulating at these depths. Determined from Haynesville and Barnett
data, the greater the rate, the greater the stimulated rock volume which is a function of pump rate.
• It is recommended to use PNL CHI data to identify the more–brittle, higher reservoir-quality rock and also the clay-rich
shale intervals to avoid locating perforations in these clay-rich sections. It appears that, generally, the stages containing
larger portions of clay, which were more ductile, treated at slightly higher rates and had higher breakdown pressures than
the organic rich-shales.
• Radioactive-tracer logs show that all 16 stages were stimulated.
• Chemical-tracer logs showed that all 16 stages had conductivity.
• It is recommended to run PNL in capture mode to acquire data for the CHI model because there was no significant
difference between the inelastic and capture-spectrum analysis in the mineral model, consequently leading to cost savings
because there will be less data runs made, whilst characterizing the lateral reservoir for determining the stimulation
strategy.
• The use of pump-down casing to run the PNL is recommended when the temperature will be higher than 300°F in highly
deviated wells (>45°) if the dogleg severity is not too high. The use of this technique combined with the CHI modeling
helps to reduce the drilling-rig costs and completion time associated with the logging time when using a tool-pusher
technique, wiper trips, mud conditioning, or multiple ecoil runs.
• CHI modeling requires proper training in a borehole section where openhole data is available. Pulsed-neutron data must
be available across the interval containing the actual openhole data so there is high confidence in the interpretation.
• Future completions should consider the use of SMAs to minimize damage to the fracture conductivity.
• Acid-soluble cement (ASC) should be considered to reduce near-wellbore tortuosity.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank El Paso Exploration and Production for allowing completion information and well data to be published. The
authors also thank Ismar Setiadi, Ryan Bump and Halliburton Kilgore Frac crew for all their help as well as Halliburton for
permission to publish this work.

Nomenclature
BHN Brinnel hardness number
YM Young’s modulus
PR Poisons’ ratio
14 SPE 138446

CHI Cased-hole Interpretation

PNL Pulsed-neutron log
GR Gamma ray
SMA Surface-modifying agent
ASC Acid-soluble cement

References
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Technical Conference and Exhibition, New Orleans, Louisiana, 25–28 September. doi: 10.2118/28555-MS.
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Tight-Gas Reservoir—A Case History. Paper SPE 111992 presented at the North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition, Marrakech,
Morocco, 12–14 March. doi: 10.2118/111992-MS.
Mullen, M., and Roundtree, R. 2007. A Composite Determination of Mechanical Rock Properties for Stimulation Design (What to Do When You
Don’t Have a Sonic Log). Paper SPE 108139 presented at the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Technology Symposium, Denver, Colorado,
16–18 April. doi: 10.2118/108139-MS.
Reed, S., Torne, J.P., Peacheco, E., Lara, A., and Palacios, C. 2007. Case History: Application of CHI Modeling Using Pulsed Neutron To Create
Pseudo-Openhole Logs in Highly Deviated Wells Using Special Techniques for Logging and Perforating in Veracruz, Mexico. Paper SPE
107527 presented at the Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 15–18 April. doi:
10.2118/107527-MS.
Reed, S., Quirein, J., and Torne, J.P., 2005. Application of CHI Modeling Using Pulsed Neutron To Create Pseudo-Open Hole Logs. Paper SPE
94716 presented at the Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20–23 June. doi:
10.2118/94716-MS.
Rickman, R., Mullen, M., Petre, E., Grieser, B., and Kundert, D. 2008. A Practical Use of Shale Petrophysics for Stimulation Design
Optimization: All Shale Plays Are Not Clones of the Barnett Shale. Paper SPE 115258 presented at the Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Denver, Colorado, 21–24 September. doi: 10.2118/115258-MS.
Rickman, R.D., and Jaripatke, O. 2010. Optimizing Microemulsion/Surfactant Packages for Shale and Tight-Gas Reservoirs. Paper SPE 131107
presented at the Deep Gas Conference and Exhibition, , Manama, Bahrain, 24–26 January. doi: 10.2118/131107-MS.
Soliman, M.Y., East, L., and Adams, D. 2004. Geo-Mechanics Aspects of Multiple Fracturing of Horizontal and Vertical Wells. Paper SPE
86992 presented at the International Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil Symposium and Western Regional Meeting, Bakersfield,
California, 16–18 March. doi: 10.2118/86992-MS.
Stegent, N., Leotaud, L., and Prospere, W. 2010. Cement Technology Improves Fracture Initiation and Leads to Successful Treatments in the
Eagle Ford Shale. SPE 137441, Enduring Resources.
Walters, H.G., Stegent, N., and Harris, P. 2009. New Frac Fluid Provides Excellent Proppant Transport and High Conductivity. Paper SPE
119380 presented at the Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, The Woodlands, Texas, 19–21 January. doi: 10.2118/119380-MS.