Fracture Diagnostic Revolution: New Advancements in Integrated Studies to Accelerate Your Learning Curve Ahead of Capital Spending

Abstract

Abstract With increasing complexity and capital cost of developing unconventional reservoirs, it has become common practice for operators to undertake hydraulic fracture optimization prior to initiating field pumping operations. However, one of the biggest challenges that has plagued the industry is a lack of effective and cost-efficient methods to diagnose the efficacy of these fracturing treatments prior to executing their next pad, leading to perpetual cycle of knowledge lagging a full drilling program behind capital spending. In this paper a new integrated workflow for hydraulic fracture optimization will be demonstrated, with a focus on the use of quantitative flowback analysis (FBA) to quickly and effectively diagnose completion efficacy within a few days of opening the well to flow after pumping using typically gathered field data. FBA is a low-cost method that consists of analyzing post-frac flow test data to diagnose completions and estimate key fracture and SRV/matrix properties using less than two weeks of flowing data. Incorporating FBA diagnostic in hydraulic fracture optimizations workflows allows operators to quickly assess how effective their fracture treatments were shortly after opening the well to flow, allowing these learnings to be applied on the next well or next pad, which acts to remove the majority of uncertainty commonly experienced during a drilling season. When combined with hydraulic fracturing modelling, FBA delivers results 6-12 months earlier than other conventional techniques like rate-transient analysis and numerical flow modelling on long-term production data and at a fraction of the cost of other early-time completions diagnostics. A case study from a prolific North American unconventional reservoir will be utilized to demonstrate how FBA was used to allow the operator to diagnose the efficacy of key changes to stimulation design developed using hydraulic fracture modelling to mitigate overlaying zone risk, while maximizing reservoir productivity and capital efficiency. Through the application of this new workflow, early-time hydrocarbon recovery was improved by over 30%, while reducing completion costs by 20%, all without incurring any additional field costs. As a result, the operator was also able to satisfy the upper management and confidently accelerate their development program within the same drilling season. With the application of this new workflow, operators are able to, for the first time, fully leverage the benefits of hydraulic fracture optimization without relying on cost-prohibitive field diagnostics to assess stimulation outcomes. Inclusion of FBA diagnostic in these workflows allows the operator to utilize commonly gathered data to quickly and effectively diagnose fracture efficacy shortly after pumping and finally accelerate their learning curve ahead of their capital spending.