The NFCI quality-control metric is used to benchmark in real-time every stimulated stage and well against the best producing wells of a similar geological and reservoir profile. The NFCI targets, trained with a database of more than 15,000 stage measurements and a production repository, are tuned for the localized acreage and continually recalibrated as new production data becomes available.
Sensor and monitoring company Seismos is partnering with Liberty Energy on real-time quality control of reservoir stimulation. Liberty will be bundling Seismos’ measurements-while-fracturing (MWF) analytics system with its completions services.
“Every stage counts,” said Panos Adamopoulos, the CEO of Seismos. “The biggest limitation to real-time fracture optimization was the lack of practical, cost-effective technologies that can be applied in every well as mainstream practice.”
Through a surface connection, without the need for downhole equipment or offset well instrumentation, the Seismos-MWF system uses active-controlled acoustics to probe the near-wellbore fracture network, providing a near-field connectivity index (NFCI) for each stage. Connectivity between the fracture system and the wellbore can be an important contributor to productivity at both the well and stage levels, providing information on the quality of the fractures. The amount of data collected by the Seismos-MWF system after each stage facilitates fracture model calibration with pressure decline data.
“The Seismos-MWF system can provide a cost-effective measurement of stimulation quality in each stage and well,” said Mike Mayerhofer, the director of technology at Liberty. “If NFCI falls well below target while completing the well, design or perforation changes can be made to improve NFCI on the subsequent stages.”