Hydraulic Fracturing Content Feed

The boom in organic shale plays has revealed the critical need to size hydraulic-facture treatments correctly to achieve commercial success.

A new line of specialized polycrystalline-diamond-compact bits have been tested in a series of Bakken wells. The bits’ integrated design allowed significant increases in drilling rate and the number of plugs drilled.

Predictive models may help in the estimation of produced water volumes and the optimization of the locations for water recycling and disposal facilities to reduce truck hauling distances.

Driven by a recovery in well completions and increased proppant loading per well, the market for raw fracturing sand is expected to grow by more than 4% annually through 2021, an industry research study says.

Senior Research Scientist and SPE Distinguished Lecturer Ian Walton uses a semianalytic shale gas production model to show that natural fractures, contrary to the intuitive beliefs of many, do not contribute significantly to production.

Service company executives examine how the oil price downturn affected supply and demand for their services in the unconventional sector, and strategies they have undertaken to stay afloat as operators adjust to uncertainty.

This study aims to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of cryogenic-fracturing technology in enhancing the permeability of unconventional-reservoir-rock analogs.

Significant production gains are being made with hydraulicly fractured wells using diversion to stimulate a higher percentage of the perforations.

There is increasing interest in drilling the Austin Chalk formation, with hopes that the latest unconventional development methods can deliver a boom in a play that has seen several over a 90-year history.

As oil prices recover from the low point of the downturn, operators in the Permian and the Bakken are tackling water management issues.