Low Oil Prices Increase Value of Big Data in Fracturing

Abstract

Shale operators are searching for insights to get the most value from hydraulic fracturing at a time of low oil prices. Discovering these insights requires a closer analysis of well data in order to make more cost-effective field development decisions. “We are often working with short-term data and need to find a way to turn that into long-term well performance,” said Craig Cipolla, a senior completions engineering adviser at Hess, who spoke at the recent 2015 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. Companies such as Hess and Noble Energy have invested in drilling test wells with hopes of recuperating costs by optimizing future treatments. “These [ studies] require significant resources and manpower, and we can only do a limited number of these, if any at all in some cases,” Cipolla said. Southwestern Energy has taken a different approach. It takes less expensive measurements and feeds them into models that are custom-built to be more predictive for the given play. The company already has made cost-saving adjustments to its operations based on the results of its models. Each approach aims to make fracturing more profitable, whether by improving recovery or finding ways to achieve the same level of production at a lower cost. Productivity Index Southwestern has created long-term flow simulations of its Marcellus Shale gas wells from what reservoir engineering manager and technical lead Michael Lynch called “nearly free data.” His team learned from simulations that proppant loading was one of the most important variables for productivity. Wells with high proppant loading overperformed by 40% compared with the company’s 30-well production average in the Marcellus, and those with low proppant loading underperformed by 20%. The team also found that close spacing between fracture stages in its Marcellus assets did not significantly drive productivity. So to save money, the company has been using a wider spacing of up to 500 ft and more proppant per stage. The main measurement that Lynch and his colleagues use to populate flow simulations is the initial productivity index, which is determined by shutting the well in and slowly opening the choke over the course of 2 to 3 days after breaking through to gas.