The Use of Completion Diagnostics in Haynesville Shale Horizontal Wells to Monitor Fracture Propagation, Well Communication, and Production Impact

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents case studies of several leases containing horizontal wells in the Haynesville shale. The studies involve the successful use of completion diagnostics: fluid tracer, proppant tracer, and offset wells pressure monitoring. The diagnostics were used to evaluate fracture propagation, connectivity and communication (between stages and offset wells) and the impact on production performance for different completion methodologies.Proppant tracers were used to identify cluster efficiency, fracture geometry and communication between stages. Fluid tracers result provided the extent of fracture connectivity between offset wells and show fracture propagation dependency on well spacing and sequence of fracturing. Furthermore, fluid tracers provided an estimate of lower bound on the fracture connectivity, as well as a qualitative measure of stage contribution based on the load fluid recovery period during the initial production phase. Depletion and treatment volume were found to play a key role in fracture propagation and tracer migration. The instantaneous pressure response in monitoring wells during the fracturing operations of adjacent wells was determined to be related to well spacing and the fracture treatment volume. Fracture propagation was found to positively impact the production performance of the depleted wells, thereby changing their original production decline.