New Minifrac Procedure for Simultaneous Determination of Early and Late Time Fluid Loss During Fracturing

Abstract

ABSTRACT Subject paper describes a novel new minifrac treatment procedure that allows the simultaneous determination of both early time fluid loss rate, (Cvc), and late time fluid loss rate, (Cw) when a filter cake has become the controlling factor. One of the primary uses of minifrac tests prior to stimulation of a zone is to determine the fluid loss coefficient, (Ceff), which plays a key role in treatment design. The value is the weighted average of Cvc and Cw. In applications in which early time fluid loss is low, this method gives reasonable results; if permeability is high the method is not valid. An excessive pad volume can be predicted in simulators when values computed by present methods are used.