Case Study: Application of a Viscoelastic Surfactant-Based CO2 Compatible Fracturing Fluid in the Frontier Formation, Big Horn Basin, Wyoming

Abstract

fax 01-972-952-9435.Abstract CO2 based fluids are commonly used to fracture stimulate formations with low reservoir pressure as well as formations that are more sensitive to water treatments (high capillary pressure, swelling clays etc). In particular, the Frontier Formation located in Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, has seen a variety of stimulation fluids used over the past years with varying degrees of success. When dealing with water sensitive formations, a common practice has been to use oilbased fluids. However, fluids of this nature can have detrimental effects on gas zones with low reservoir pressure and this might be the reason for erratic well performance of previously treated Frontier completions. It has also been determined that oil-based fluids can alter the reservoir wettability and hence cause formation damage. With this in mind and considering the environmental and economical benefits of using a water-based fracturing fluid, a novel viscoelastic surfactant based, CO2-compatible, high foam quality (>60%) fluid was proposed as the main fracturing fluid. This paper will discuss the first application of this visco-elastic based fluid on wells in Park County, Wyoming. This paper will discuss stimulation with the new fluid and how pin-point pressure measurement enabled the operator to make informed decisions to define fracturing/completion strategy. We also present the additional benefits of incorporating existing dipole sonic tool information to calibrate "in-situ" stress, Young's Modulus and Poisson's ratio. Finally, a production history match is conducted on wells treated with the new fluid.

Numerical Study of Fracture Network Evolution during Nitrogen Fracturing Processes in Shale Reservoirs

“…where M g and R represent the molar mass of nitrogen and the universal gas constant, respectively; Z is the compressibility factor; T is the temperature. Applying Equation (17) to Equation (16) yields [51]:…”

“…This may result in a serious environmental problem [3,15]. Therefore, waterless fluids including N 2 and CO 2 are proposed to replace the water-based fluids [13,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Several studies have been conducted on nitrogen fracturing [24][25][26][27].…”

Research on Property of Multicomponent Thickening Water Fracturing Fluid and Application in Low Permeability Oil Reservoirs

“…erefore, when the surfactant fracturing fluid meets the appropriate amount of formation water and oil gas, the intermolecular interaction distance between the surfactant and salt will increase. Furthermore, the entanglement state of wormlike micelles is destroyed, even the wormlike micelles disintegrated into simple micelles, and these can make the gel system automatically break [17][18][19][20][21][22]. e mechanism of gelling and breaking of thickening water is shown in Figure 1.…”

Foam Stabilization Mechanism of a Novel Non-cross-linked Foam Fracturing Fluid

“…The non-cross-linking fracturing fluids, such as viscoelastic surfactant (VES) fracturing fluids, have become an important development direction of fracturing fluid technology. − VES forms associated structures through rodlike micelles, which is essentially a kind of association. − In 1999, Zhang and Gupta first proposed the combination of VES and foam fracturing fluid. In 2006, VES–CO 2 foam fracturing fluid technology was first successfully applied in Park, Wyoming . Since then, VES–CO 2 foam fracturing fluid has rapidly become a hot research topic in the world.…”