Fracturing/pressure pumping
Casing deformation has emerged as a major challenge in China’s unconventional oil and gas fields, prompting the development of new solutions to address the issue.
The US supermajor is using one of its lowest-value hydrocarbon products to generate double-digit production increases in its most prolific US asset.
The collaboration has announced Closed Loop Fracturing, which combines real-time subsurface data with automated surface control.
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A refracturing campaign in the Permian yielded a production gain that allowed payback on the investment within 6–12 months. -
The integration of microseismic data with 3D seismic attributes, and well log and completions data is used to understand geomechanical rock properties.
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A pair of inventive companies are working on a way to allow microseismic tests to visualize the otherwise silent process of propping fractures.
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Understanding how much rock is being stimulated and propped is critical for unconventional producers. New imaging methods using electromagnetic energy or acoustic microemitters could represent a milestone in understanding what is left behind after fracturing.
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A new proppant exhibits a neutrally wet surface, which does not have a preferential affinity for oil, gas, or water and therefore will not promote the preferential entrapment of any phase within the proppant pack.
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Hydraulic fracturing exerts transient geomechanical forces near the wellbore, enabling a brief time interval in which a second hydraulic fracture can be created in a different direction.
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The oil-economy downturn will not affect the areas where research, development, and application of novel technologies are absolutely necessary for the commercialization of hydrocarbon.
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While many factors may influence fracture-height evolution in multilayer formations, the consensus is that the so-called “equilibrium height belonging to a certain treating pressure” provides an upper limit, at least for nonnaturally fractured media.
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A new unconventional proppant technology—a rod-shaped proppant—delivered 25% higher oil per net pay compared with offset wells using conventional proppant.
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Developers of the latest generation of unconventional hydraulic fracturing models are hoping that current weak oil and gas prices will generate newfound interest in their software technology.
