Production Operations

WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

(Hydraulic fracturing)

By

Amit Verma
Assistant Professor
Petroleum Engineering Dept.
UPES, Dehradun
 Skin Reduction: Hydraulic Fracturing

• Fracturing is a process by which we create a

highly conductive flow path from the wellbore
into the reservoir
• How?
Fracture
– Pump at high pressure Growth
Direction
– Breakdown the formation
– Open up & propagate Frac
fluid
the fracture injection
smin
– Fill the fracture up
with proppant
Land Based Frac Equipment
 Summary

• Stimulation is a method to reduce skin and

increase productivity
• Mechanical or chemical methods can be applied
– Fraccing to bypass damage, intersect natural
fractures or for tight reservoirs
– Matrix treatments for damaged formations
Each of these stimulation techniques is intended to provide a net increase in
the productivity index, which can be used either to increase the production
rate or to decrease the drawdown pressure differential.

A decrease in drawdown can help prevent sand production and water

coning, and/or shift the phase equilibrium in the near-well zone toward
smaller fractions of condensate.

Injection wells also benefit from stimulation in a similar manner.

The skin effect is an idealization, capturing the most important aspect of

near-wellbore damage; the additional pressure loss caused by the damage
is proportional to the production rate.
Even with the best drilling and completion practices, some kind of near-well
damage is present in most wells.

In a way, the skin can be considered as the measure of the quality of a well. It
is reasonable to look at any type of stimulation as an operation reducing the
skin.

With the generalization of negative skin factor, even those stimulation

treatments that not only remove damage but also superimpose some new or
improved conductivity
paths with respect to the originally undamaged formation can be put into this
framework.

In the latter case, it is more correct to refer to the pseudoskin factor, indicating
that stimulation causes some changes in the streamline structure as well.
An important aspect of the skin factor is illustrated below. Reducing the skin from 1 to
zero has a bigger impact on the production of an ‘‘average’’ oil well than reducing it
from 25 to 20. In other words, the skin effect defines an intuitively ‘‘nonlinear’’ scale
to represent the quality of the well.

Typical oil-well productivity as a function of skin effect

Economic Impact of Well Stimulation
Selection of the optimum size of a stimulation treatment is based primarily on
economics. The most commonly used measure of economic effectiveness is the
net present value (NPV). The NPV is the difference between the present value
of all receipts and costs, both current and future, generated as a result of the
stimulation treatment.
Future receipts and costs are converted into present value using a discount rate
and taking into account the year in which they will appear. Another measure of
the economic effectiveness is the payout period; that is, the time it takes for
the cumulative present value of the net well revenue to equal the treatment
costs. The NPV (as other equivalent indicators) is sensitive to the discount rate
and to the predicted future hydrocarbon prices.
As with almost any other engineering activities, costs increase almost linearly
with the size of the stimulation treatment but (after a certain point) the
revenues increase only marginally or may even decrease. Therefore, there is an
optimum size of the treatment that will maximize the NPV
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
Hydraulic fracturing consists of injecting fluid into the formation with such
pressure that it induces the parting of the formation.

Proppants are used in hydraulic fracturing to prop or hold open the created
fracture after the hydraulic pressure used to generate the fracture has been
relieved.

The fracture filled with proppant creates a narrow but very conductive path
towards the wellbore.

In almost all cases, the overwhelming part of the production comes into the
wellbore through the fracture; therefore, the originally present near-wellbore
damage is ‘‘bypassed,’’ and the pretreatment positive skin does not affect the
performance of the fractured well.
 Perhaps the best single variable to characterize the size of a
fracturing treatment is the amount of proppant placed into the
formation.

Obviously, more propped fracture volume increases the

performance better than less, if placed in the right location. In
accordance with the general sizing approach outlined above, the
final decision on the size of the fracturing treatment should
be made based on the NPV analysis.

The question we have to answer here is more technical: how

do we place a given amount of proppant in the best possible
way?
 A hydraulic fracturing operation may last from tens of
minutes to several hours. Points of the fracture face near the
well are opened at the beginning of pumping while the points
at the fracture tip are younger.
FRACTURING MATERIALS
Materials used in the fracturing process can be categorized into fracturing
fluids, additives, and proppants.

The fluid and additives act jointly to produce the hydraulic fracture when
pumped, transport the proppant into the fracture, then flow back to allow
the generated propped fracture to produce.

Stimulation costs for materials and pumping are estimated at 46% for
pumping, 25% for proppants, 19% for fracturing chemicals, and 10% for
acid.

Materials and proppants used in hydraulic fracturing have undergone

changes since the first com mercial fracturing treatment was performed
in 1949 with a few sacks of coarse sand and gelled gasoline.
Fracturing Fluids

The functionality of the fracturing fluid was outlined above. Factors to

consider when selecting the fluid include availability, safety, ease of mixing
and use, compatibility with the formation, ability to be recovered from the
fracture, and cost.

Fracturing fluids can be categorized as (1) oil- or water-based, (2) mixtures

of oil and water called emulsions, and (3) oil- and water-based systems
containing nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas.

Fluid use has evolved from exclusively oil-based in the 1950s to more than
90% crosslinked, water-based in the 1990s. Nitrogen and carbon dioxide
systems in water-based fluids are used in about 25% of all fracture stimulation
jobs.
 Viscosity is one of the most important qualities associated with a fracturing
fluid. The most efficient viscosity-producing gum is guar, produced from the
guar plant.

Guar derivatives called hydroxypropyl guar (HPG) and

carboxymethylhydroxypropyl guar (CMHPG) are also used because they
provide lower residue, faster hydration, and rheological advantages because
less gelling agent is required if the guar is crosslinked.
Proppant Selection
Since proppants are used to hold open the fracture after the hydraulic
pressure used to generate the fracture has been relieved, their material
strength is of crucial importance.

The propping material has to be strong enough to bear the closure stress;
otherwise, the conductivity of the crushed proppant bed will be considerably
less than the design value (both the width and the permeability of the
proppant bed decrease).

Other factors considered in the selection process are size, shape, and
composition. There are two main categories of proppants: naturally occurring
sands and manmade ceramic and bauxite proppants.

Sands are used for lower-stress applications in formations at approximately

6000 ft and, preferably, considerably less. Man-made proppants are used for
high-stress situations in formations generally deeper than 8000 ft.
Between these two values, the magnitude of the stress is the deciding factor.
Three ways to increase the fracture conductivity are:
(1)increase the proppant concentration to produce a wider fracture,

(2)use larger proppant size to produce a more permeable fracture, or

(3)change the proppant type to gain more strength.

 Skin & Formation Damage
• Extra Pressure drop near wellbore
• Can be caused by:
– Plugging of pore spaces or perforations
– Mud cake
– Incomplete perforation of a zone
– Emulsion or wax deposition
• Ideally, design your well, so you don’t get skin
• If not.. bypass the damage with perforation
• If still not OK, repair the damage by stimulation
Note: negative skin is where there is
less pressure drop near wellbore
than permeability suggests