Stage-Level Data Integration to Evaluate the Fracturing Behavior of Horizontal Wells at the Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site(HFTS):An Insight into the Production Performance

摘要

Continuous improvement of the completion design in horizontal wells is the key to improve the ultimate recovery from shale resources.Accounting for not only the geological characteristics of the target formation but also the spatial heterogeneity in the target layer is a significant step in achieving the optimum completion design and improving the production efficiency.For this purpose,the present study proposes a comprehensive descriptive data analytics workflow using the completion design and reservoir metrics of more than 400 fracturing stages from the eleven horizontal Wolfcamp wells in the Permian Basin at the hydraulic fracturing test site(HFTS).In this study,fracture gradient,calculated based on the measured instantaneous shut-in pressure(ISIP),is utilized as the reservoir response to the hydraulic fracturing work.The proposed workflow evaluates the impact of variations in the reservoir properties and completion design parameters on the reservoir response to the hydraulic fracturing process.It also facilitates explaining the variations in the production performance of the horizontal wells placed in the same formation.The impact of added fracture complexity in the presence of active or inactive vertical producers located within a certain distance from the horizontal wells is also evaluated.A supervised multivariate analysis is used in this work to provide an insight into the importance of selecting the optimum completion design on a well by well basis,highlighting the importance of adapting the design of fracturing stages to the variations of the formation properties along the lateral placements of horizontal wells.Results indicate that the best performing wells,from the cumulative oil production standpoint,are those that experienced changes in the stage completion and treatment parameters compatible with the inverted reservoir properties variations.It is also observed that in the upper Wolfcamp,formation properties dominantly control the zonal fracture gradients while in the middle Wolfcamp,completion design parameters are the dominant controllers.This workflow is used for the first time to explain the possible causes of variations in the production performance of the similarly designed HFTS wells in the Wolfcamp formation.