A Statistical Approach to Fracture Optimization of the Glauconite Formation in Southern Chile

Abstract

The Glauconite Formation is a low permeability unconventional resource in southern Chile. Like many unconventional reservoirs outside the United States establishing commercial production from the Glauconite Formation was difficult given the nature of the reservoir, the availability of equipment and materials, and the logistics associated with drilling, completing, and fracture stimulating wells in a remote area like Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile. To be successful fracture stimulating wells in this environment it was critical to develop a deep understanding of the relationship between reservoir quality, completions, mini-frac analysis, fracture design, execution, and post fracture production data. To this end, a database was developed and the key completion and fracture stimulation parameters were captured. This paper describes a statistical evaluation of nearly seventy wells fracture stimulated in the Glauconite Formation in southern Chile. The analysis will attempt to discover the key fracture design parameters that drive well performance in this unconventional resource. Some key questions to be addressed include: What type of fracture fluid (cross-linked, linear gel, hybrid, or treated water frac's) results in better well performance? What is the effect of treatment volume on well performance? What is the effect of proppant volume, proppant type, and proppant size on well performance? Is there a relationship between fracture fluid efficiency, load recovery, reservoir quality and well performance? These and more questions will be addressed in this paper. This paper will also use the information in the database and the results of the statistical evaluation to conduct a fracture optimization study and determine the optimum fracture design which maximizes well performance and economic objectives. This work benefits the petroleum industry by: 1. Conducting a statistical analysis of the important completion and fracture stimulation parameters to determine the success drivers for well performance in an unconventional tight gas reservoir, 2. Utilizing the statistics to identify well completion and fracture stimulation risks and risk mitigation strategies.

Meeting Name

SPE Asia Pacific Hydraulic Fracturing Conference (2016: Aug. 24-26, Beijing, China)

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Cements; Digital storage; Drilling equipment; Fracture; Hydraulic fracturing; Hydraulic machinery; Mica; Natural gas well completion; Oil wells; Petroleum engineering; Petroleum industry; Petroleum reservoir evaluation; Proppants; Quality control; Resource valuation; Statistics; Tight gas; Water treatment; Well completion; Well equipment

Geographic Coverage

Chile

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-1613994818

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2016 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2016

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS