SP

PE 15969
96

A Novel M
Method to
o Optimizze Horizo
ontal Ba
akken Co
ompletion
ns in a Factory
Mode
M Devvelopmennt Progra
am
Ro
obert Shelleyy, P.E., Nijat Guliyev and Amir Nejad, PhD; Strata
aGen Engineering

Copyright 2012, Society o

of Petroleum Enginee
ers

Thiss paper was prepared

d for presentation at th
he SPE Annual Technical Conference and
d Exhibition held in Sa
an Antonio, Texas, USA, 8-10 October 20
012.

Thiss paper was selected for presentation by an a SPE program com mmittee following review of information co
ontained in an abstracct submitted by the author(s).
a Contents off the paper have not been
revie ewed by the Society of Petroleum Engine eers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any posittion of the Society off Petroleum Engineers, its
officcers, or members. Electronic reproduction n, distribution, or sto
orage of any part of this paper without thhe written consent of
o the Society of Petrroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permissiion to
reproduce in print is restrricted to an abstract of
o not more than 300 words; illustrations may
m not be copied. Th he abstract must contain conspicuous ackn nowledgment of SPE copyright.

Ab
bstract

Thhis paper will describe a new w method to facilitate

f optim
mization of hyydraulically fractured
fr horizzontal Bakkenn completions.. A
key y component of this methood is a predicttive data-drivven model devveloped from a detailed evaluation of ovver 50 horizonntal
Baakken complettions. Using this model, production
p preedictions and economic opptimization caan be quickly performed ussing
onlly data obtainned during lateral drilling operations.
o Thhis type of modeling
m and optimization
o o new horizoontal completiions
of
fitss well with a ffactory mode (rapid pace off well complettion and hydraaulic fracturin
ng) of resourcee developmennt.
Th
he need to creeate large am mounts of fraccture area annd the associaated costs creeate an opporrtunity for ecconomy of sccale.
Unnfortunately, the
t time andd expense reqquired perform ming logging runs to gath her data, andd estimate resservoir and rock
r
operties to faccilitate complletion design and optimizaation reduces operational efficiency and increases weell cost. A data-
pro
driiven approachh to optimizingg hydraulicallly fractured horizontal com
mpletions doess not reduce operational
o effficiencies sincce it
cann be developed from comm mon data and innformation ob btained duringg drilling operaations.
Thhe data-driven model showss that reservoiir quality, as one would exxpect, has the dominate efffect on Bakkenn production. In
adddition hydraullic fracture deesign/methodoology, fracturee spacing, prooppant selectioon, frac staginng methods, frac
f compartmment
iso
olation, drillouut/cleanup prrocedures, weellbore length h and orientaation have a significant efffect on welll production and
ecoonomics. Seveeral case histoories will be inncluded in whhich data-driveen modeling was
w used to ev valuate variouss completion/ffrac
sceenarios, predicct production and facilitate completion/frrac optimization.
Th
he challenge oof optimizing horizontal Baakken compleetion and fracc design (30 or o more hydraaulic fracturinng treatments per
weell) in a fast paaced factory mode
m of resouurce developm
ment is problem
matic. The meethodology deescribed in thiis paper has been
b
hellpful to idenntify productio on drivers annd facilitate well planninng while alsoo supporting a factory mode
m of resou
urce
devvelopment.

Ba
ackground

Ba
akken Well Type
T and Co
ompletion Modeling
M
It is well estabblished that hydraulic
h fraccturing can significantly
s accelerate prroduction fromm oil reservooirs. In a high
h
perrmeability casse this can bee due to fracinng through neear wellbore damage,
d or inn a low permeeability enviroonment hydrau
ulic
fraacturing can exxpedite hydroocarbon recoveery. Howeverr, recovery off oil from ultraa-low permeabbility rock succh as the Bakkken
shaale where fraccturing of verttical wells is generally
g not economic,
e howw can commerrcial oil be reccovered whenn the permeabiility
is in
i the microdaarcy range or below?
b
Table 1 below contains
c a summmary of reseervoir propertiies in which all
a the parameeters with the exception off permeability are
fix
xed. As can be seen perm meabilities rannge from 5 mdm down to 00.005 md. The T generally accepted deffinition of a low l
perrmeability oill reservoir is 1 md or bellow. So the 0.005 md peermeability is almost 3 ordders of magnnitude below this
deffinition. The fracture half lengths and conductivity
c f each perm
for meability weree selected baseed upon guiddelines developed
fro
om post frac eevaluation andd modeling. Note
N that the 5 md permeability has the shortest frac leength and highhest conductivvity
at 60 ft and 51220 md-ft respeectively whilee the 0.005 md
m case has thhe longest fraccture half-lenggth and lowesst conductivityy at
2 SPE 159
9696

5000 ft and 80 mmd-ft. The 600 ft frac lengtth characteristics with a 51120 md-ft connductivity aree achievable with
w the use of o a
cro
osslinked frac fluid or frac pack type treeatment placin ng high propppant concentraations, while the 500 ft fraacture half-lenngth
witth 80 md-ft off conductivityy could be achiieved with a hybrid
h type treeatment placinng moderate proppant
p conceentrations.

T
Table 1 – Reserrvoir and Fracc Parameters used
u for Reservvoir Simulation
n.

Oil Reservoir & Hyddraulic Frac

cture Modeliing Parametters
Permeeability Pay DAA Poros sity SW Frac Halff Length Hf
H FC md--
m
md ft acre
es % % ftt ft ft CR
5 40 160
0 6 20 60
0 4
40 5120 5.4
00.5 40 160
0 6 20 125 4
40 1280 6.5
0.05 40 160
0 6 20 250 4
40 320 8.2
0.0
005 40 160
0 6 20 500 4
40 80 10.2

For purposes off the Bakken oil reservoir evaluation 6 well and fraac types have been selected for evaluation. They arre a
verrtical, fractureed vertical, horizontal,
h lonngitudinal hydraulic fractuured horizontaal and two orthogonal
o hydraulic fractuured
horrizontals withh fracture spaccings of 500 and
a 200 ft. The drainage areaa used for all
a simulations for the varioous well and frac
f
typ
pes is the samee a quarter secction or 160 acres.
A numeric reseervoir simulaator was usedd to determinne the produuction and reecovery for the t 6 wells typest and the 4
perrmeabilities seelected. Figurre 1 below conntains comparrisons of the well
w recovery after 10 yearss for the 24 siimulator runs.. As
cann be seen for the high perm meability casees 5 md all th
he horizontal well
w types prooduced the most
m oil with about
a 25% off the
oriiginal oil in pllace after 10 years
y producedd. The verticaal fraced well produced 22%% while the unnfraced verticcal well produuced
19% % of the original oil in plaace. This is inn sharp contraast to the 0.0005 md cases where
w the horizontal well with
w 11 transveerse
hyddraulic fractuures (most cosstly completioon) recovered about 8% of the original oil o in place foollowed by thee horizontal well
w
witth 5 transverrse fractures (2nd most coostly completiion) at 5% and a all the other
o less exppensive well types produccing
gnificantly less. For the 0.0005 md case, the horizontaal well with 111 transverse fractures
sig f recovvered over 8 ttimes more oiil in
10 years than thee fractured veertical well.
Opptimization off these compleex horizontal completions using this typpe of modelinng approach iss problematic because therre is
lim
mited opportunnity to obtain the data requiired to estimatte permeabilitty. Most horizzontal Bakkenn wells do nott totally penetrrate
thee entire Bakkeen interval soo there is no opportunity
o too run logs thrrough the entiire interval too estimate streesses for the frac
f
dessign. In addittion, logging a long 9,000 ftf horizontal well
w bore mayy take several days, is costlyy and may invvolve risk of well w
losss. As such, cconventional logging
l of a horizontal
h welllbore does noot fit well witth a large scalle project in which
w operatio
onal
effficiency is an important paart of the oveerall economicc success. Thhe subject off this paper iss a different type t of modelling
proocess that usees readily avaiilable everydaay information obtained duuring lateral drilling
d to faciilitate optimizzation of Bakkken
com mpletion and hydraulic fraccture stimulatiion.

Fig
gure 1 – Summ
mary of Reservoir Simulation
n Recovery Esttimates
SPE 159696 3

Ide
entification and Evaluattion of Com
mmon Param
meters Assoc
ciated with Reservoir Quality
Q
Baakken horizonttal laterals aree rarely openhhole logged. As A a result, thhe normal inddicators of reseervoir qualityy such as porosity
devvelopment, water saturation n, total organiic carbon (TOOC), among otthers, are not available for a large majoriity of wells to o be
commpleted. It is possible thatt a data-drivenn predictive model
m can be developed thaat requires more readily avvailable reserv voir
quaality data suchh as that obtaained when thee horizontal wellbore
w is driilled? In the past the indusstry used form mation evaluattion
d from mudd logs is used for formation
meethods as desccribed by Pixller in which data n evaluation. His method uses u hydrocarbbon
ratios of the drillling mud gas to determine if a zone is tiight, will prodduce oil, gas and/or
a water (Figure
( 2). Today this typee of
muud log data is available forr almost everyy Bakken horiizontal well, however
h it is unclear abouut how this infformation cann be
useed to optimizee the design ofo the complettion and frac. It would be very useful to o be able to use
u this inform mation as a proxy
forr the lack of ddata to estimaate reservoir pparameters succh as permeabbility to faciliitate completion optimization. Drilling mudm
gass content, alkkane fractionss and other mudm log data will be evaluuated in the data-driven
d m
model developpment processs to
dettermine its useefulness in esttimating and predicting
p prooduction from horizontal Baakken well borres.

Pixler Formation
F Evaaluation
Technique
1000

NONPRO
ODUCTIVE
100

GAS

10

OIL

NONPR
RODUCTIVE
1
C1/C2 C1/C3 C
C1/C4 C1/C5
5

H
Hydrocarbon Ratio

Figgure 2 – Form
mation Evaluatiion by Hydrocarbon Ratio (a
after Pixler, 19968)

Fig
gure 3 – Comp
parison of Drillling Mud Gas to
t Post Frac Prroduction for Wells
W with a Similar Compleetion and Fracc Approach.
4 SPE 159696

Figure 3 shows a comparison of the average total gas measured in the drilling mud returns vs post frac best month well
production for horizontal Bakken wellbores. This visualization was prepared by filtering to only wells with no or minimal frac
compartmentalization. As can be seen there is a strong relationship between the amount of gas contained in the drilling mud
returns and post frac well production. This result makes sense in that higher pressured, more porous and/or higher
permeability rock would release and/or produce more hydrocarbon into the wellbore when it is drilled. This result is
encouraging in that it is an indication that there is useful reservoir quality information associated with the total gas entrained in
the drilling mud system. It must be noted that all of these wells are located in the same general area in Dunn County and the
mud logging was performed in a consistent manner by the same vender.

Development of a Data-Driven Model for Horizontal Bakken Completions

The data-driven model development data contained information from 40 wells in which mud log, lateral, completion, frac, and
production data was available. These wells were located in Dunn, McKenzie, Mountrail, Williams and Burke Counties, North
Dakota. All laterals were drilled generally in a northwest-southeast or north-south orientation and completion lengths ranged
from 2,890 ft to 17,200 ft. Normally a production liner was run in the lateral which utilized swell packers for frac
compartment isolation. Up to 38 separate frac treatments were performed with plug-and-perf, ball drop sleeve or a
combination of these two frac staging methods. Frac fluid types included sand waterfrac, linear gel, and crosslinked fluids.
Propping agents included the use of sand, intermediate-strength and ceramic materials. Fluid and proppant volumes ranged up
to 2,480,000 gal and 7,222,000 lb. respectively. As discussed earlier, open hole logs were not run on these wells, so reservoir
quality parameters such as porosity, water saturation, TOC, permeability, among others, were not available for evaluation or
model-development purposes. A partial summary of Bakken data parameters is contained in Table 2.

Table 2 – Data-driven Model Development and Selection Data Summary.

Parameter Minimum Maximum Average
Top_Middle_Bakken (TVD ft) 7,564 10,901 10,117
Upper Bakken Thickness ft 10 30 15
Avg_Mud_Wt (lb/g) 9.0 11.0 9.7
Avg_ROP (min/ft) 0.5 2.0 1.0
Avg_TG 18 2,511 731
Avg_GR 53 173 89
Fraction_C4 0.00 0.30 0.10
Wellbore Degrees from North ‐52 11 ‐12
Lateral Length ft 2,890 17,263 8,632
No of Fracture Treatment 1 38 17
Total Treatment Volume BBL 4,762 59,121 30,652
Total Proppant lb 185,000 7,222,738 2,338,019
Average Rate (BPM) 15 101 42
Peak Oil BBL 0 26,004 9,158
Peak water BBL 737 28,202 9,226
EUR BBL 0 628,000 297,975

Experience has shown that it is important to perform visual and multivariate analysis of the data prior to investing time in data-
driven model development. It is important to identify, correct or exclude inaccurate or questionable data which may prevent
development of or compromise the quality of the resulting predictive model. Another benefit for preliminary analysis of the
data is that useful trends or relationships may become apparent. The graphs in Figures 4a through 4d are comparisons of
several frac or completion parameters to estimate oil recovery using decline curve analysis. As can be seen, there is a weak
relationship between the number of frac treatments and oil recovery. The effect of treatment volume, proppant weight and total
completion length to oil recovery is unclear. We suspect that combinations of these parameters along with reservoir and
geology will be needed to fully explain well-to-well differences in estimated oil recovery.
SPE 159696 5

Figures 4a th
hrough 4d – Coomparisons of Frac/Completi
F ion Parameterrs to Estimated
d Oil recovery.

Thhe data-drivenn model develloped from thhe Bakken dattabase is a feed-forward arrtificial neuraal network (AN NN). The ANN
A
moodel was trainned by back-p propagation trraining to preddict two outcoomes simultan neously: best month oil cuumulative and
d oil
reccovery. The model develo o 40 wells annd 73 data fields. Genetic algorithms (GAs) evaluaated
opment dataseet consisted of
varrious combinations of inpput parameters and facilitaated the selecction of appro opriate netwoork topology. A test dataaset
connsisting of 100 well records was excludedd from traininng and used foor model selecction purposees. This modell was found after
a
o approximateely 48,000 neuural network models. The final selectedd ANN modell used 10 inpuut parameters and
thee evaluation of
connsisted of a siingle hidden layer
l with six neurons. Figuures 5a & 5b shows a com mparison of AN NN model preedicted vs. acttual
prooduction for the
t 30 traininng (blue symbbol) and 10 model
m selectioon wells (red symbol). This model requuires only readdily
nformation andd completion//frac information such as laateral length, frac
avaailable geologgy, mud log in f compartm ment spacing, frac
f
vollume, frac fluid type, propppant amount, proppant
p type,, perforating and/or
a frac staaging methodoology.

Best Mon
nth Oil Cumula
ative Oil Recove
ery
7
700,000
30,000
R² = 0.9427
6
600,000
25,000

R² = 0.8919
Actual Best Month Oil BBL

5
500,000
20,000

4
400,000
Actual BBL

15,000
3
300,000
10,000
2
200,000

5,000
1
100,000

0
0 5,000 10,000 15,000 2
20,000 25,000 30,000 0
0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 6
600,000 700,000
Mod
del Predicted Best Month Oil
O BBL
Model Pred
dicted BBL

Figure
F 5a & 5b – ANN Modeel Predicted vs.. Actual Produ
uction for Horiizontal Bakken
n Wells. The bllue symbols reepresent trainin
ng
wellls and the red test.

Da
ata-Driven (A
ANN) Modell Sensitivitie
es
Sen nsitivities were performed on each of the t data-driven model preddictors to deteermine the ovverall effect oof each on mo odel
esttimated well pproduction. Predictor
P senssitivity is perfformed by hoolding all of the
t other preddictors constannt except for the
inpput parameter of interest, of which the value
v is increaased by 10% of
o its range. The
T change inn model-prediicted productiions
aree noted and coompared to thhe base case. This processs is repeated for f all of the predictors req
quired by the model. Tablle 3
conntains a rankinng by the overrall significannce on producttion for each parameter
p used by the modeel.
6 SPE 159696

Sensitivities performed on the data-driven model identify reservoir-related and completion/frac parameters as having an effect
on Bakken production. Bakken zones that have low C1 (Methane) and high C4 (Butane) values, more total gas in the mud
system when the lateral was drilled and to a lesser extent used higher mud weight have favorable oil production characteristics.
The model’s response to C1 and C4 is supported by Pixler’ formation evaluation method in that high values are interpreted as
tight zones.

Table 3 – Summary of Sensitivities Performed on Controllable and Non-Controllable ANN Model Predictors.

Parameter Influence on Peak Oil Influence on Oil Recovery

Butane 24.12% 17.70%
No of Fracture Treatment 14.45% 13.25%
Total Gas 6.13% 6.82%
Proppant 3.86% 5.22%
Methane ‐3.04% ‐3.50%
Staging Method & Perforating 3.92% 1.73%
Treatment Type 2.31% 3.19%
Lateral Length 3.15% 1.05%
Treatment Volume 2.49% 2.03%
Drilling Mud Weight 0.42% 0.48%

Controllable Completion and Frac Parameters

Non‐Controllable Reservoir Related Parameters

The effect of controllable completion/frac related factors on well production are of particular interest when designing
completions and frac treatments. Sensitivities performed on the data-driven-model indicate that the number of frac treatments,
frac spacing, proppant conductivity, perforated length and completion length have a positive effect. The general response of
this Bakken data-driven model to completion and frac parameters such as number of frac treatments, treatment volume and
proppant conductivity is consistent with the results from numeric modeling of fractured horizontal completions. This will be
described more completely in the case histories.

Benchmarking Bakken Well Performance with the Data-Driven (ANN) Model

The Bakken data-driven model was used to predict production for an additional 10 wells which were part of a project to
evaluate the effectiveness of completion and frac methods. Figure 6 compares the data-driven model predicted vs. actual best
calendar month oil production for these wells which are located in McKenzie County (Truax area) and Divide/Williams
Counties (Wildrose area). The line drawn represents a perfect correlation between model predicted and actual production.
Data points that fall below the line indicate a model over-prediction of production while data points that plot above the line
indicate a model under-prediction. As can be seen, the model is predicting the production for the 4 wells located in the Truax
area and 3 wells in the Wild Rose area with good accuracy. However, the productions of the three highlighted wells in the
Wild Rose area are over predicted by the model. We suspect that the model over-prediction for these wells is due to factors
that contribute to ineffective hydraulic fracture stimulation. The overprediction may be due to parameters that were not
available for ANN model development. 3-D Fracture modeling of these wells indicate that excessive out of zone fracture
propagation resulted in less effective stimulation.
SPE 159696 7

Figgure 6 – ANN Model

M Predicteed vs. Actual Production
P for a 10 Well Prooject

Op
ptimization o
of a Dunn County
C Well with the Da
ata-Driven (A
ANN) Model
Thhe horizontal lateral on weell A was driilled to a lenngth of 9,400 ft. The totaal gas measurred during hoorizontal drillling
opeerations averaaged 2,400 unnits. The C1//C4 gas ratio was 3 whichh indicate thatt this wellboree penetrated very
v high quaality
resservoir rock. A service co ompany propoosed to stimullate this well with 40 frac treatments ussing a total off 5,300,000 lbb of
20//40 ceramic proppant placeed with approxximately 4,0000,000 gal of crosslinked flu
uid and 400,0000 gal linear gel.
g The frac cost
c
of this proposedd stimulation was
w estimated at $6,600,000 0.

Completion Evaluatio
on Well "A""
1,00
00,000 30,000

90
00,000
25,000

Best Month Oil Cumulative (BBL)

80
00,000

70
00,000
20,000
Oil Recovery BBL

60
00,000

50
00,000 15,000

40
00,000
10,000
30
00,000

20
00,000
5,000
10
00,000

0 0
EUR BBL 645,650 685,510 729,78
81 778,838 824
4,736 854,850 865,203 860,967
7
Best Month Oil BBL 19,917 21,147 22,592 24,302 26,000 27,213 27,761 27,798
Number of Fracs
F 5 10 15 20 2
25 30 35 40

Figure 7 – Su
ummary ANN Model Producction Predictio
ons for Well A

valuation of thhe proposed co

Ev ompletion andd frac with thee ANN model took less thann 1 day and was
w performedd using the diggital
muud log, directiional survey and
a frac costinng data. This evaluation inndicated that comparable
c prroduction andd recovery cann be
achhieved by redducing treatment volume. It also indicaated that the number of frrac stages cou uld be reduceed from 40 too 30
witthout significcant loss of production.
p Figure 7 contaiins a summarry of producttion and recovvery predictioons made by the
Baakken ANN model
m using th
he reduced treeatment volummes. As can bbe seen, at abbout 30 frac trreatments the incremental best
b
8 SPE 159696

month oil cumulative production gain for each additional frac becomes insignificant. The model estimate with 30 frac
treatments, a best month oil production of 27,213 BBL and an EUR of 854,550 BBL which is a very prolific Bakken producer.
In addition the model is predicting only minor increases in oil recovery with additional fracs, using 40 frac treatments the
ANN model estimates a best month oil production of 27,798 BBL and an EUR of 860,967 BBL. Comparison of this behavior
to the numeric reservoir modeling indicates that this production behavior is consistent with 0.05 md range permeability
reservoir rock.
A production profile for each frac scenario was synthesized using the ANN model estimate of best month cumulative oil
production and oil recovery. Figure 8 shows the net present value calculated using this profile using a net oil price of
$60/BBL and a water disposal cost of $5/BBL. As can be seen the economic break over for this well occurs at about 30 frac
treatments.
This information was used to justify completion using 30 frac treatments, a treatment volume of approximately 3,350,000 gal
placing 3,050,000 lb prop. The best month cumulative production achieved by this well was approximately 36,000 BBL oil,
which is one of the best wells in the area.

Well "A" Economic Optimization

$27,000
Thousands

$25,000
Net Present Value

$23,000

$21,000

$19,000

$17,000

$15,000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Number of Frac Stages (Treatments)

Figure 8 – Net Present Value for Well A Completion/Frac Scenarios

Optimization of a Divide County Well with the Data-Driven (ANN) Model

The horizontal lateral on well A was drilled to a length of 9,495 ft. The total gas measured during horizontal drilling
operations averaged 470 units. The C1/C4 gas ratio was 4.5 which indicate that this wellbore penetrated moderate quality
reservoir rock. It was proposed to stimulate this well with 24 frac treatments using the plug & perf frac staging method.
Evaluation of the completion and frac with the ANN model took less than 1 day and was performed using the digital mud log,
directional survey and frac costing data. This evaluation indicated that this well would benefit from more hydraulic fracture
stimulation. It also indicated that the number of frac stages could be increased from 24 to 45 with significant increase in
production. Figure 9 contains a summary of production and recovery predictions made by the Bakken ANN model using
different number of frac treatments. As can be seen, the optimum number of treatments appears to be 45 or greater as there is
no breakover in production with more frac treatments. Comparison of this result to numeric reservoir modeling shows that this
behavior is consistent with reservoir rock in the 5 micro-darcy range.
SPE 159696 9

Completion Evaluation Well "B"

600,000 20,000

18,000
500,000
16,000

Best Month Oil Cumulative (BBL)

Estimated Oil Recovery BBL
14,000
400,000
12,000

300,000 10,000

8,000
200,000
6,000

4,000
100,000
2,000

0 0
Number of Fracs 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
EUR BBL 263,690 304,764 355,348 413,528 470,913 521,619 567,241
Best Month Oil BBL 6,635 7,872 9,564 11,643 13,778 15,725 17,525

Figure 9 – Summary ANN Model Production Predictions for Well B

A production profile for each frac scenario was synthesized using the ANN model estimate of best month cumulative oil
production and oil recovery. Figure 10 shows the net present value calculated using this profile, a net oil price of $60/BBL
and a water disposal cost of $5/BBL. As can be seen there is no economic break over for up to 45 frac treatments on this well.
Unfortunatly it was too late to change the completion on this well. This well was completed using 24 frac treatments, a total
proppant amount of 2,990,000 lb consisting of 40/70 sand, 20/40 sand and 20/40 ceramic. The proppant was placed with
approximately 1,420,000 gal of crosslinked fluid. The best month cumulative production achieved by this well was
approximately 9,595 BBL of oil, which is in close agreement with the 24 frac ANN Model estimate of 9,188 BBL of oil.

Well "B" Completion Optimization

$16,000
Thousands

$14,000

$12,000
Net Present Value

$10,000

$8,000

$6,000

$4,000

$2,000

$0
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Number of Frac Stages (Treatments)

Figure 10 – Summary Net Present Value for Well B Completion/Frac Scenarios

10 SPE 159696

Conclusions
 Mud log data contains reservoir information useful for completion and frac optimization. This information can be
readily obtained from measurements made during drilling of the horizontal lateral.
 Reservoir information is required to optimize horizontal Bakken completion and fracture stimulation design. Well
bores drilled in low permeability rock have different stimulation requirements than wells drilled in high perm rock.
 Sensitivity studies of the ANN model indicate that Non-Controllable parameters such as Butane, Total Gas and
Methane have significant influence on well productivity. Controllable parameters that influence well productivity
include number of fracture treatments (frac spacing), proppant type and amount, frac staging method, treatment fuid
type and volume and lateral length.
 The optimum hydraulic fracture spacing for 0.05 md permeability rock is approximately 300 ft. while the optimum
spacing for 0.005 md well is less than 200 ft.
 A data-driven approach to optimizing completion and hydraulic fracturing design is a good fit with a factory mode of
well completion operations. Optimization of the completion and frac design can be performed within a day of
reaching TD of the horizontal lateral.
 The type of data-driven model used for the evaluations contained in this paper is a feed forward artificial neural
network (ANN). It is important to note that process knowledge and engineering judgement was used in the model
development and evaluation process.

References
Besler, M., Steele, J., Egan, T., and Wagner, J. 2007. Improving Well Productivity and Profitability in the Bakken—A Summary of Our
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