Best Practices and Lessons Learned from more than 1,000 Treatments: Revival of Mature Fields by Hydraulic Fracturing in Khalda Ridge, Egypt's Western Desert

Abstract

Abstract Most of Egypt's Western Desert reservoirs are characterized to have low permeability and heterogeneous, poor rock quality. In the early development stages only layers with high permeability were produced, while the low-permeability, low-porosity layers were not considered economic. As these high-permeability layers became more mature and declined in production, tight layers became the operator's alternative choice to unlock the enormous amounts of hydrocarbons still present in these rocks and achieve economical production targets from these marginal fields. Hydraulic fracturing technology enabled us to unlock the potential of these challenging layers that were previously considered uneconomical. Hydraulic fracturing is now a common practice, even pushing extremes such as deeper, high-temperature and high-pressure wells in the Western Desert. The incremental production gains from these challenging layers have encouraged operators to invest. Currently, hydraulic fracturing is routinely conducted for all new production and injection wells and is reconsidered for the old wells. Completion practices, candidate selection criteria, perforation and design strategies, and workflows were revised to address these new challenging conditions and reservoir complexities with hydraulic fracturing technology. For example, vertical completions were replaced by horizontal multistage fracturing completions to increase the reservoir contact. State-of-the-art software was used to simplify decisions on fracture initiation points across heterogeneous reservoirs. Different technologies, alternative to conventional perforating, were introduced to enhance the proppant placement, post-fracturing production, and operational efficiency. This paper provides a review of hydraulic fracturing in Egypt's Western Desert. The hydraulic fracturing technique has been used to develop mature fields and challenging formations of Egypt since the early 1990s. More than 1,000 treatments targeting low- to medium- permeability rocks were pumped in Khalda Ridge. Correlation between mechanical properties, reservoir properties, essential fracturing design, completions, and operational parameters were established over time to help other operators that intend to apply hydraulic fracturing to their assets. Case histories are also provided, demonstrating different fracturing techniques for extreme conditions. In this paper we detail the progress related to completion practices and technologies to revive the mature fields of Egypt.