A Study on designing appropriate hydraulic fracturing treatment with proper material selection and optimized fracture half-length in tight multilayered formation sequence

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is widely accepted technology to unlock unconventional reservoirs and produce the hydrocarbon fluids at feasible rates, but reaching these rates requires an optimal designing of the hydraulic fracturing treatment. This study presents an approach to design an appropriate hydraulic fracture with proper material selection and optimized fracture half-lengths. In this approach, initially, a hydraulic fracture model is selected for fracture design while considering formation stresses and fracture propagation. After that, the proppants and fracturing fluids are selected based on in-situ stresses, hydraulic fracture permeability and conductivity, the sensitivity of formation with water, pressure and temperature conditions of the reservoir. After the selection of the above materials, five hydraulic fractures with fracture half-lengths of 318 ft, 415 ft, 539 ft, 618 ft, and 724 ft are selected based on the amounts of proppants pumped, and their production responses are plotted. After comparing the selected fractures, the optimal fracture treatment is achieved at fracture half-length of 618 ft due to its high fluid recovery, along with the low amount of proppant pumped (127 klbs), which ultimately increases revenue and puts less burden on the economics of the project. The approach used in this study will, therefore, help design future hydraulic fracture treatment with an optimized hydraulic fracture, resulting in high hydrocarbon production rates, and reduce the overall cost by selecting the compatible fracturing fluids and adequate amounts of proppants.