Completions
Industry experts at URTeC assessed more than a decade of unconventional growth while discussing where productivity gains will come from next.
Chevron and Halliburton describe how they built and deployed the fully autonomous closed-loop fracturing system that enables subsurface-driven optimization.
Weatherford CEO Girish K. Saligram said the acquisition will bolster Weatherford’s completions offerings and unconventional reservoir capabilities.
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Drilling long horizontal wellbores and completing wells with multistage fracturing are common practices in shale-play development. -
In response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident that claimed the lives of 11 men and led to the worst oil spill in United States history, the offshore industry devised new technologies and methods that would allow for a quicker response in the US Gulf of Mexico.
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Companies are deploying a variety of technologies to reduce the water needs of hydraulic fracturing. Where are these new facilities with these new technologies, and how will they help operators solve the problem of finding water to use?
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Over the next few years, water treatment technologies are expected to continue to be deployed in the basin, as drought drives aquifer levels to new lows.
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I think it is safe to say that the engineers and companies involved, in either building or using sand-control systems, have made significant strides and have added critical learnings to our industry.
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Although multiple-zone, downhole sand-control-tool systems have been in use since the early 1990s, these systems have been designed for jobs that require only low pump rates with low pressure differentials.
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Standalone-sand-screen (SAS) completion, especially in horizontal gas wells with high potential for sand production, typically suffers from premature failure caused by sand erosion resulting from high velocity in the annulus near the heel section.
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Large amounts of clay minerals are present in shale; shale’s resulting instability is a major problem while drilling.
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Hydraulically fracturing and stimulating multiple horizontal wells in sequence has been rapidly adopted by operators because of the potential for production without introducing unwanted risks.
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Upstream separation processes remain a hot topic for facilities engineers. Striving to design separators with the optimal sizing for a variety of reservoir conditions, increasing water cuts, and dynamic gas/oil/water production characteristics is critical, but challenging.
