Optimizing Frac Techniques to Enhance Oil and Gas Production

Applying practical frac engineering techniques reduced bridging and improved limited entry diversion, resulting in increased oil and gas production on a San Andres well in the Permian Basin.

The Challenge

Bridging during frac operations caused treatments to be cut short, while improper perforation strategies resulted in poor effective fracture half-lengths that negatively impacted oil and gas production.

The Approach

IPT frac engineers conducted a review of the client’s legacy frac operations and associated production results.

These results were compared against alternative frac engineering designs and lessons learned derived from IPT’s regional experience with other frac operations targeting the San Andres formation in the Central Basin Platform.

The Solution

IPT frac engineers provided several recommendations to improve frac effectiveness and production performance, including:

1. Adjusting perforation shot size (EHD) and hole count to improve diversion effectiveness based on limited entry principles.
2. Increasing crosslinked gel loading to improve proppant placement and optimize lateral proppant distribution and fracture half-length.
3. Trialing the use of non-corrosive “green acid” to potentially improve operational efficiency by reducing total stage time.
   
   

IPT’s frac engineering recommendations were implemented on the operator’s most recent San Andres completion. No issues occurred while initiating treatments through the perforation friction-driven limited entry perforation scheme.

The modified perforation scheme increased confidence in effective diversion and stimulation of individual clusters. Increasing gel loading improved fluid peak viscosity sufficiently to generate additional fracture width needed to mitigate proppant bridging. Review of the operator’s previous treatments showed bridging in approximately 25% of frac stages, while no fluid-related bridging was observed during the recent operations.

Following the treatments, the Pump Intake Pressure (PIP) on the Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) was higher in the new well than previously measured on offset wells. Higher pressure and lower decline rates indicated improved fracture half-length performance. The “green acid” trial was successful and demonstrated effectiveness compared to standard hydrochloric acid, giving the operator confidence in future applications to improve operational efficiency.

The Results

Overall oil and gas production improved compared to previous frac operations using IPT’s engineering recommendations, and additional operational savings may be realized on future treatments.