Fiber-Optics Results From an Intra-Stage Diversion Design Completions Study in the Niobrara Formation of DJ Basin

Abstract

Abstract Hydrocarbon production has been long existent in the Denver Julesburg basin and with the development of horizontal drilling technology the Niobrara has become one of the most economical plays even with lower oil prices. The multi-bench Niobrara formation is the primary target in the basin followed by the Codell. Even with the better economics, the Niobrara and the Codell completions are not optimized yet. The operators are still aiming for more and more stages with lesser spacing thus increasing the costs. The objective of this study is to show that stage spacing can be optimized with low cost diversion technology yielding equal or better production with fewer stages thus lowering costs. In this optimization study, two Niobrara "C" bench lateral wells from the same pad that are next to each other were selected as candidates. The first well, Well-K was completed with 28 stages geometrically spaced at 153 feet utilizing the perf-n-plug methodology. The second well, Well-L was completed with 20 stages, geometrically spaced at 215 feet, also utilizing the perf-n-plug methodology. Well-L was stimulated utilizing the intra-stage diversion process and had approximately 404,000 lbm less proppant than Well-K. Well-K was completed without the diversion technology. Following stimulation and flowback, Fibercoil with Distributed Temperature Survey (DTS) and Distributed Acoustic Survey (DAS) capabilities were run in both the wells to diagnose the contribution from each perforation cluster. The Fibercoil results clearly showed that Well-L with larger stage spacing and intra-stage diversion had 80% fracture initiation as opposed to 60% with the limited-entry Well-K that had shorter stage spacing. The production results so far are very encouraging for the L-well. The 180-day cumulative oil production for Well-L is almost similar to Well-K with the normalized barrels of equivalent oil (BOE) per foot, BOE/ft. difference being lower by 3%. This study has clearly shown us that with some additional enhancement intra-stage diversion can be used to optimize stage spacing without compromising production. The post-frac fracture modeling analysis along with the Fibercoil results including warm-back analysis and production for the two wells is presented.