Improved Completion Economics Through Real-time, Fiber Optic Stimulation Monitoring

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how a single permanent fiber installation allowed the development of improved completions designs in real time in order to improve well economics. Design changes were adjusted during the completion of the well to determine stage length and completion execution. Improvements were applied to the subsequent wells in the program. In 2018, an eight-well pad was completed with the intention of immediately drilling and completing a second directly offset eight-well pad. Further options for additional wells would be evaluated based on the performance of these sixteen wells. The laterals of the project wells were arranged in a wine-rack configuration targeting zones in the Upper and Lower Eagle Ford Formation. Initial designs were based on analytics from the area resulting in an initial design for cluster spacing, stages per cluster, injection rates and volumes, and fluid volumes. The primary goal of the diagnostics expenditure was to improve the dollars per barrel relationship, specifically by increasing stage lengths that could be effectively completed along the lateral wellbore. The project included a casing-installed fiber optic cable to record the distributed acoustics and distributed temperature along the wellbore for, respectively, stimulation flow profiles and production flow profiles. Acoustic-based flow profiles were generated during the project and evaluated to influence the next set of stage designs. These design changes involved among other variables adding clusters to the stage, sand staging, and rate adjustments, At the end of the project, completions changes resulted in a reduced individual well cost of 11%. Production profiling began to compare stage designs along the lateral and to confirm baseline well performance versus its peers. In both cases, those results confirmed that the design changes lowered the overall cost while maintaining well performance.

Advancement of Hydraulic Fracture Diagnostics in Unconventional Formations

“…Due to the reservoir complexity, determining the optimal completion and stimulation design to enhance fracturing efficiency and production performance in unconventional reservoirs remains difficult. Unconventional fiber optic applications have focused on fiber-based pressure gauges and cluster efficiency calculations using near-wellbore DAS and DTS obtained via permanent casing installations or DTS wireline logs run after treatment [27][28][29][30]. Fiber optics technology has been recognized as a potential option for establishing consistent production profiles in unconventional wells [30].…”

Study of Flow Rate Measurements Derived from Temperature Profiles of an Emulated Well by a Laboratory Prototype

“…In addition, in recent years fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) technology has been used for monitoring injection profiles in wellbores [10,11,12]. This technology has improved the flow rate monitoring process, because DTS, among other benefits [13], provides permanent injection monitoring without production intervention, and can acquire temperature data along the entire extension of the wellbore simultaneously [14]. Therefore, developing a kind of software sensor (as the ones described in References [15,16]) represents an attractive approach for the measurement of flow rates from temperature data.…”