Best Practices in Designing and Executing a Comprehensive Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site in the Permian Basin

Courtier, James; Chandler, Karen; Gray, Danny; Martin, Shaun; Thomas, Randy; Wicker, Joe; Ciezobka, Jordan

doi:10.15530/urtec-2017-2697483

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…In addition to a full set of geophysical measurements and various other observations of reservoir behavior before, during, and after the completion of about 400+ fracture stages in 2015, the project featured a unique post‐stimulation core well drilled through the newly stimulated fractured rock volume. The obtained cores provided a rare opportunity for field studies to be directly informed by detailed laboratory studies involving (a) direct characterization of fracture and proppant distribution, (b) determination of the potential modification of the rock matrix adjacent to hydraulic fractures, and (c) state‐of‐the‐art micro‐scale characterization and testing (Birkholzer et al., 2021; Ciezobka et al., 2018; Courtier et al., 2017). A similar field laboratory program was established recently in the United States to advance geothermal energy production in hot dry rocks, which need fracture stimulation to allow for fluid circulation and energy harvesting: The Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) is a dedicated community research site in Milford, Utah (Moore et al., 2020) where scientists and engineers are developing, testing, and accelerating breakthroughs in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technologies and techniques.…”

Section: Field Observations and Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Fluid Flow to Coupled Processes in Fractured Rock: Recent Advances and New Frontiers

Viswanathan

Ajo‐Franklin

Birkhölzer

et al. 2022

Reviews of Geophysics

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Quantitative predictions of natural and induced phenomena in fractured rock is one of the great challenges in the Earth and Energy Sciences with far‐reaching economic and environmental impacts. Fractures occupy a very small volume of a subsurface formation but often dominate fluid flow, solute transport and mechanical deformation behavior. They play a central role in CO2 sequestration, nuclear waste disposal, hydrogen storage, geothermal energy production, nuclear nonproliferation, and hydrocarbon extraction. These applications require predictions of fracture‐dependent quantities of interest such as CO2 leakage rate, hydrocarbon production, radionuclide plume migration, and seismicity; to be useful, these predictions must account for uncertainty inherent in subsurface systems. Here, we review recent advances in fractured rock research covering field‐ and laboratory‐scale experimentation, numerical simulations, and uncertainty quantification. We discuss how these have greatly improved the fundamental understanding of fractures and one's ability to predict flow and transport in fractured systems. Dedicated field sites provide quantitative measurements of fracture flow that can be used to identify dominant coupled processes and to validate models. Laboratory‐scale experiments fill critical knowledge gaps by providing direct observations and measurements of fracture geometry and flow under controlled conditions that cannot be obtained in the field. Physics‐based simulation of flow and transport provide a bridge in understanding between controlled simple laboratory experiments and the massively complex field‐scale fracture systems. Finally, we review the use of machine learning‐based emulators to rapidly investigate different fracture property scenarios and accelerate physics‐based models by orders of magnitude to enable uncertainty quantification and near real‐time analysis.

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Section: Field Observations and Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Fluid Flow to Coupled Processes in Fractured Rock: Recent Advances and New Frontiers

Viswanathan

Ajo‐Franklin

Birkhölzer

et al. 2022

Reviews of Geophysics

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“…The HFTS project, fielded within the Wolfcamp Formation in the Permian Basin, provides an excellent opportunity to further develop our understanding of the hydromechanical response to hydraulic stimulation and associated fluid transport in shale lithologies. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and a consortium of industry sponsors, the experiment was designed to elucidate the intra-and inter-well stress interactions within a single horizon and also among vertically separated wells in different lithologic units, and their influence on hydrocarbon production [24][25][26]37]. The project involved the drilling of 11 horizontal wells within the Upper and Middle Wolfcamp Formation in the Midland basin of West Texas, at a site hosted by Laredo Petroleum, Inc.…”

Section: Hydraulic Fracturing Field Test Site In the Permian Basin (Usa)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Modeling Framework for Multi-Scale Simulation of Hydraulic Fracturing and Production from Unconventional Reservoirs

et al. 2021

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This paper describes a new modeling framework for microscopic to reservoir-scale simulations of hydraulic fracturing and production. The approach builds upon a fusion of two existing high-performance simulators for reservoir-scale behavior: the GEOS code for hydromechanical evolution during stimulation and the TOUGH+ code for multi-phase flow during production. The reservoir-scale simulations are informed by experimental and modeling studies at the laboratory scale to incorporate important micro-scale mechanical processes and chemical reactions occurring within the fractures, the shale matrix, and at the fracture-fluid interfaces. These processes include, among others, changes in stimulated fracture permeability as a result of proppant behavior rearrangement or embedment, or mineral scale precipitation within pores and microfractures, at µm to cm scales. In our new modeling framework, such micro-scale testing and modeling provides upscaled hydromechanical parameters for the reservoir scale models. We are currently testing the new modeling framework using field data and core samples from the Hydraulic Fracturing Field Test (HFTS), a recent field-based joint research experiment with intense monitoring of hydraulic fracturing and shale production in the Wolfcamp Formation in the Permian Basin (USA). Below, we present our approach coupling the reservoir simulators GEOS and TOUGH+ informed by upscaled parameters from micro-scale experiments and modeling. We provide a brief overview of the HFTS and the available field data, and then discuss the ongoing application of our new workflow to the HFTS data set.

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“…The integrated modeling framework was tested using high-quality data and core samples from the Hydraulic Fracturing Field Test (HFTS), a field experiment with extensive monitoring of the hydraulic fracturing process and the associated shale oil and gas production in the Permian Basin (Ciezobka et al, 2018;Weijermars et al, 2020;Salahshoor et al, 2020;Courtier et al, 2017). In addition to a full set of geophysical and other observations (such as microseismic signals, tilt, downhole pressure variations, tracer transport, and production data) which can be used to test the GEOS-TOUGH+ reservoir-scale simulations, the HFTS project obtained core samples from a science observation well that was drilled through the stimulated volume after hydraulic fracturing.…”

Section: Tough Modeling Of Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The HFTS project, fielded within the Wolfcamp Formation in the Permian Basin, provides an excellent opportunity to further develop our understanding of the hydromechanical response to hydraulic stimulation and associated fluid transport in shale lithologies. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and a consortium of industry sponsors, the experiment was designed to elucidate the intra-and inter-well stress interactions within a single horizon and also among vertically separated wells in different lithologic units, and their influence on hydrocarbon production (Ciezobka et al, 2018;Weijermars et al, 2020;Salahshoor et al, 2020;Courtier et al, 2017). The HFTS project featured a very comprehensive characterization and monitoring effort before, during, and after the completion of about 400+ fracture stages in 2015.…”

Section: Hydraulic Fracturing Field Test Site In the Permian Basin Usamentioning

confidence: 99%

An Integrated Multiscale Modeling Framework for Unconventional Stimulation and Production (Final Report)

Birkhölzer¹,

Morris²,

Bargar³

et al. 2021

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The production of oil and gas from unconventional reservoirs largely depends upon two main features operating at different scales: (1) the establishment of a reservoir scale stimulated fracture network that effectively communicates with the rock volume, enhancing permeability and transport to the wellbore and (2) the coupled multi-phase flow, chemical and mechanical processes affecting the migration of hydrocarbons from the low permeability country rock adjacent to the stimulated fracture network. To date, there has been no simulation framework that allows seamless and integrated prediction of these features across spatial scales extending from the pore structure of the reservoir rock to the volume of the reservoir. In addition, there has been a lack of suitable field measurements to test such models, as stimulation and production data are often proprietary and not freely available to national laboratories and academic institutions. New multi-scale simulation capabilities are needed that are validated against suitable field-based research experiments on hydraulic fracturing and shale production.

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Best Practices in Designing and Executing a Comprehensive Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site in the Permian Basin

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

From Fluid Flow to Coupled Processes in Fractured Rock: Recent Advances and New Frontiers

From Fluid Flow to Coupled Processes in Fractured Rock: Recent Advances and New Frontiers

A New Modeling Framework for Multi-Scale Simulation of Hydraulic Fracturing and Production from Unconventional Reservoirs

An Integrated Multiscale Modeling Framework for Unconventional Stimulation and Production (Final Report)

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