Enhancing Unconventional Reservoir Performance: Integrating Real-Time Fracture-Driven-Interactions (FDIs) and Post-Stage Fall-Off Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Hydraulic fracturing near depleted fractured rocks is a major cause of fracture hits, leading to damage in parent wells and reduced fracture efficiency in the child well due to significant fluid and proppant losses to the parent well. This behavior is exacerbated by tight well spacing and the depletion time of the parent wells. To address this issue, the current study aims to combine real-time fracture-driven-interactions (FDIs) and post-stage pressure transient analysis (PTA) to accurately estimate fracture half-length for each stage during hydraulic fracturing operations. During hydraulic fracture operations, pressure gauges are installed in offset wells to measure pressure changes during each stage completion in the child well, taking well interference into account. The post-stage fall-off pressure data is then used to calculate the connected fracture surface area (FSA). By analyzing the real-time FDIs with an offset depleted zone, the methodology can estimate higher stage fracture half-length, indicating lower cluster efficiency. The summation of stages with high fracture half-length enables the estimation of the well interference value. To validate the proposed methodology, actual field cases from oil and gas shale frac data are presented, showcasing live FDIs measurements for each stage, followed by stage-by-stage PTA. The preliminary results reveal that over 20% of the stages experience fracture hits due to the higher fracture half-length and lower cluster efficiency. Furthermore, the well interference value has been verified using actual production data. Integrating FDI measurements with PTA for detecting frac stage interference in unconventional wells provides a faster, more accurate, and cost-effective fracture diagnostic tool that optimizes well spacing.