Hydraulic Fracturing Content Feed

A closer look at technological and mechanical solutions being developed to limit exposure to respirable silica dust during hydraulic fracturing operations in the wake of US government regulations.

Technology that allows researchers to see stress forming inside rock samples may help unravel some of the mysteries associated with fracture behavior.

The Austin Chalk play could go through a revival if the industry can view the formation through “a fresh set of eyes,” says EnerVest’s Tony Maranto.

Early testing suggests that grains of proppant so small they need to be measured in microns can add production by slowing the notoriously rapid declines in unconventional wells.

With newly discovered fields and the extension of existing areas, the challenges related to reservoir heterogeneity, tight rock, layered systems, and field maturity have led to innovative ideas and to testing and application of technologies.

Recent studies have found that the viscosities of borate gels at actual downhole pressure conditions may be 80% less than those from standard high-pressure/high-temperature rheometer measurement (which uses 400-psi top pressure).

This paper examines the chemistry of developing seawater-based fracturing fluids using two types of polymers as gelling agents and compares results to existing fresh-water-based-fracturing-fluid data under different conditions.

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive multiphase-flow study that investigated the relationship between the principal stresses and lateral direction in hydraulically fractured horizontal wells.

The objective of this study is to validate the concept of using a seismically derived discrete fracture network (DFN) calibrated with borehole measurements, for complex-hydraulic-fracture modeling.

Always recorded but almost never used, the water hammer signal could offer completions engineers another set of insightful data if petroleum engineers can crack its code.