Advanced Modeling of Production Induced Pressure Depletion and Well Spacing Impact on Infill Wells in Spraberry, Permian Basin

Abstract

Since early 2016, commodity prices have been gradually increasing, and the Permian Basin has become the most active basin for unconventional horizontal well development. As the plays in the basin are developed, new infill wells are drilled near pre-existing wells (known as "parent wells"). The impact of pressure depletion caused by adjacent existing producers may have a larger role in the performance of these new infill wells. How the various well spacing impact with the degree of reservoir pressure depletion from parent well is more important than ever for operators to optimize the completion design. Through data analytics and comprehensive fracture/reservoir modeling this paper studies how changes in well spacing and proppant volume in the Spraberry, a main formation in the Permian Basin, will impact new infill well performance. The studies in this paper are focused on the Midland Basin. A public database was used to identify the number of parent and child wells in the Midland basin. Data analysis of production normalized by total proppant and lateral length shows that parent wells outperform infill, or child, wells. To further understand the relationship between parent and child wells, a reservoir dataset for the Spraberry formation was used to build a hydraulic fracture and reservoir simulation model for both the parent well and a two-well infill pad. After production history matching a P50 type well as the parent well, three periods of production depletion were modeled (6 months, 3 years and 5 years) to understand the timing impact on the infill well production. A geomechanical finite-element model (FEM) was then used to quantify the changes to the magnitude and azimuth of the in-situ stresses from the various reservoir depletion scenarios. A two-well infill pad was then simulated into the altered stress field next to the parent well at various spacings between the parent and child wells. A sensitivity was then performed with different stimulation job sizes to understand the volume impact on created complex fracture propagation and total system recovery. This study can help operators understand how well spacing, reservoir depletion, and completion job size impact the infill well performance so they can optimize their infill well completion strategy.

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