Operational QA/QC: What You See is Not Necessarily What You Get

摘要

One of the principle constraints to successful fracturing and stimulation, outside North America and a few select regions; remains the very poor QA/QC that is unfortunately the industry yardstick in low volume areas. This paper will describe a rigorous approach to the operational QA/QC which allows an operator to: provide assurance on the ability to effectively perform a treatment, maximise the opportunity for a successful intervention, ensure efficient delivery of data and minimise the overall costs. This paper will outline a suite of approaches which are both step-wise and encompass various operational stages such as contracting, pre-frac planning, frac operational execution and post-frac reconciliation. A number of the key considerations (in each of these areas) will be described in further detail, along with all of the necessary supporting tools, check-lists and recommendations as required. The paper will go on to describe examples of start-up operations which have actually benefitted from the application of this approach and will describe the potential pitfalls and outcomes which would have resulted, if the QA/QC regime had not been rigorously followed. Finally, the paper will describe the importance of the relationship which is developed, a priori as part of operational planning between the operator and the service company, and the impact that this can have on the outcome. The industry is littered with tight-gas exploration and appraisal programmes that have been aborted or curtailed, due to inadequate stimulation QA/QC and the poor results which they subsequently provide. All too readily, the formations themselves are held responsible for the lack of ability to stimulate and/or the poor subsequent production performance. Such poor performance is typically explained via the development of colourful and exotic theories and scenarios, which are formed solely in order to support such failure; rather than acknowledge the more commonplace actual cause(s) which lie directly with the operational performance of the service company and the operator themselves.