A Field Study in Optimizing Completion Strategies for Fracture Initiation in Barnett Shale Horizontal Wells

Abstract

Summary The Barnett shale is an unconventional gas reservoir that currently extends over an estimated 54,000 sq miles. In an effort to improve well economics and to reduce the number of surface locations in populated areas, the number of wells being drilled and completed has rapidly increased. With this change in development strategy, operators and service companies alike have had to search for innovative solutions to overcome challenges faced in horizontal completions. Inefficient fracture initiation is the largest reoccurring problem encountered when completing horizontal Barnett shale wells. These difficulties have manifested themselves as high-fracture initiation and propagation pressures, which lead to low injection rates and high treating pressures. These losses reduce the efficiency of proppant placement and stimulation. As drilling activity has increased over the past couple of years, fracture-initiation problems are now a substantial source of expense and downtime. This field study examines 256 horizontal Barnett shale wells in an effort to identify the causes of these near-wellbore issues and to offer corrective solutions for future completions. The goal of this study is to recommend an optimized completion strategy to minimize these near-wellbore problems, increase stimulation coverage, and decrease unplanned completion expenses. In 2005, 19% of the stages in horizontal wells examined encountered near-wellbore difficulties. This field study inspects the major contributors to fracture initiation, specifically focusing on cccemented vs. uncemented laterals, horizontal-stress anisotropy, perforation strategy, cementing strategy, and stimulation design. The paper offers statistics on which changes have had the greatest effect on stimulation placement. These problems can cost operators an additional 25% per stage or more. Using these optimized strategies has reduced by 74% the number of stages in which fracture-initiation difficulties have been encountered.