Eagle Ford Shale: A Multi-Stage Hydraulic Fracturing, Completion Trends and Production Outcome Study Using Practical Data Mining Techniques

Abstract

Abstract The Eagle Ford Shale is a hydrocarbon-producing formation, located in the state of Texas, and it is a discovery type called unconventional shale oil and gas. Eagle Ford Shale is considered a recent discovery because the drilling and completion activities began significantly only around 2009. The main difference between this and other formations of the same type is its ability to produce gas and liquid hydrocarbon. For many reasons, including its high mineralogical heterogeneity, uncertainty about its development is present, and the associated risk of efficient well construction and completion is considered high. This paper summarizes the information for about approximately 1,000 hydraulic fracturing stages performed in the Eagle Ford shale formation and documents a data-mining study of well, multistage hydraulic fracture treatments, production parameters and completion techniques. A Geographical Information System (GIS) pattern-recognition technique was used to map and plot well data. This work took advantage of a large and rich well and production data set available from the Eagle Ford Shale, which was associated with each well completed in this area. As the successful development of this reservoir has relied in the combination of horizontal drilling, multistage completions and innovative hydraulic fracturing, the results and conclusions found here can be applied as a part of an overall optimization on each stage of the completion process in this area. The conclusions of this paper lead us to actual and hidden trends in the multistage hydraulic fracturing techniques applied here as well as the completion steps. They also identify parameters that can impact and improve understanding of these processes.