Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Creating Hydraulic Fracture Complexity in the Bakken Central Basin

Pearson, C. Mark; Griffin, Larry; Wright, C. A.; Weijers, Leen

doi:10.2118/163827-ms

Cited by 32 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Deciding to use this parameter reduced the dataset from 1070 wells to 655, but was necessary since previous studies had showed that type of proppant was a significant contributor to both completion cost and production performance. 1 The model indicates an R 2 of 0.14 for 90-day cum production, which is a stronger correlation than any other parameter, excluding water cut.…”

Section: Figure 16 -Central Basin Histogram Of 90-day Cum Oil Coloredmentioning

confidence: 81%

The Value Proposition for Applying Advanced Completion and Stimulation Designs to the Bakken Central Basin

Griffin¹,

Pearson²,

Strickland³

et al. 2013

Day 2 Tue, October 01, 2013

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The Bakken boom in North Dakota is currently focused on the Central Basin area where around half of the drilling rigs in North Dakota are now operating. What makes this area different compared to previous areas of Bakken development is that there is only minor structural variation and significantly less naturally induced fracturing as compared to the higher permeability rock facies that exist in the sub-reservoirs of earlier Bakken development such as at the Elm Coulee field in Montana or the Sanish and Parshall fields in North Dakota. As a consequence, the role of the well's completion and stimulation design has a greater significance and impact on well productivity and ultimate recovery. Different companies have taken very different approaches to well design using either plug and perf or ball and sleeve completions, and a variety of fracture designs with slickwater, hybrid or cross-linked gel fluids and a variety of proppants from 100% natural sand to 100% ceramics. As a consequence, it is not uncommon for different operators to have over a 2 million dollar difference in their AFE's solely because of the differences in approach to the well's completion and stimulation design. The authors have chosen to apply "advanced completion and stimulation designs" which are designed to maximize the reservoir contact area (slickwater and plug and perf) and optimize the conductivity (ceramic proppant at relatively high volumes). 1,2

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Section: Figure 16 -Central Basin Histogram Of 90-day Cum Oil Coloredmentioning

confidence: 81%

The Value Proposition for Applying Advanced Completion and Stimulation Designs to the Bakken Central Basin

Griffin¹,

Pearson²,

Strickland³

et al. 2013

Day 2 Tue, October 01, 2013

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“…Griffin et al (2013) and Pearson et al (2013) analyzed and compared the completion and production data from 1185 wells in the Central Basin of the Bakken Shale. It is possibly the easiest cost to control or lower.…”

Section: Economics Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Proppants Selection Based on Field Case Studies of Well Production Performance in the Bakken Shale Play

Sun

Wong

et al. 2014

All Days

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A brief overview of different proppant types and amounts used in stimulation designs in the Bakken shale play since 2011 is presented in this paper. The primary goal of the paper is to determine the long-term production and economical effectiveness on hydraulically fractured wells using different proppant types, percentages of proppant types and overall amount of proppant in the well completions. The results are based on four case studies that focus on 72 wells in four different fields in the Bakken formation of the Williston Basin.In these four case studies, the primary variable that affects the difference in long-term production of the different well groups is the percentage and amount of each proppant type used in the completion design. Completion and stimulation data was collected from public resources such as the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) database. In each case study, wells in the same field were grouped. For each group of wells, the average long-term production and economical effectiveness was analyzed.The case studies in the Capa Field in Williams County North Dakota and the Chimney Butte Field in Dunn County North Dakota shows that over a 270 day period, in each group of wells completed with about 30 percent ceramic proppant mixed with silica sand, the wells produced an average of over 100 percent more than the comparable group of wells completed using only silica sand. The case study in the East Fork Field in Williams County North Dakota shows that after 270 days of production, the group of wells using 100 percent ceramic proppant attained an average of 27 percent production increase over the group of wells using an average of 62 percent ceramic proppant. These wells also attained a 67 percent production increase over the group of wells using an average of 35 percent ceramic proppant.In comparing completion procedures in these high-producing fields, using a combination of high percentages and large amounts of ceramic proppant has yield higher production and EUR. The use of ceramic proppant not only covers the additional proppant cost in a short period of time, but also generates higher revenue in the long term. The findings from these case studies should apply to all fields that have similar reservoir characteristics.

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“…Cross-linked and hybrid (combination of friction reducer, linear gel, and cross-linked fluids) treatment designs have predominantly been the designs of choice from the beginning of the Bakken boom, and many operators have applied that same design to Three Forks fracs. However in the last couple of years, high-rate slickwater designs have started yielding some impressive results in both the Bakken (4) (5) and Three Forks. There are several significant differences between hybrid and slickwater designs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Completing the Second Target: Finding Optimal Completion Practices for the Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Williams

Weaver²,

Weijers³

2015

SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference

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The Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin has started to see a large increase in activity in the past six years. This is largely due to the shallower Bakken Formation transitioning into an infill development mode and operators looking at finding incremental reserves from the Three Forks Formation below. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the geological and completion variables of Three Forks horizontal wells in the North Dakota portion of the Williston Basin, and show which factors impact production performance using multivariate statistics. A financial evaluation of the completion factors will also be presented to show which variables have the biggest impact on production.

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Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Creating Hydraulic Fracture Complexity in the Bakken Central Basin

Cited by 32 publications

References 11 publications

The Value Proposition for Applying Advanced Completion and Stimulation Designs to the Bakken Central Basin

The Value Proposition for Applying Advanced Completion and Stimulation Designs to the Bakken Central Basin

Proppants Selection Based on Field Case Studies of Well Production Performance in the Bakken Shale Play

Completing the Second Target: Finding Optimal Completion Practices for the Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis

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