Fracture Spacing Design for Multistage Hydraulic Fracturing Completions for Improved Productivity

摘要

Over the years, productivity studies conducted for horizontal multistage completions have shown significant stage-wise variability. Optimizing such completions could hold the key to unlocking true value from shale reservoirs and improving well economics. Traditional hydraulic fracturing programs use the same fracture design along laterals without any consideration for changes in the reservoir and wellbore conditions. Methods using mechanical rock properties require expensive petrophyisical logging data, while those involving use of drill cuttings can be highly resource intensive and time consuming. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach, which utilizes routinely available data such as measurements made while drilling and petrophyisical data as available within a fracture spacing design framework. We validate our approach through application on multiple wells by comparing results from our workflow with post completion production logging. Finally, we highlight the potential advantages and pitfalls in our approach and present a roadmap for future implementation in different plays.