Method for providing multiple fractures in a formation

a technology of multiple fractures and formations, applied in the direction of fluid removal, chemistry apparatus and processes, borehole/well accessories, etc., can solve the problem of limited rapid growth of fractures, and achieve the effect of reducing the cost of diverter material, minimizing damage, and reducing costs

Inactive Publication Date: 2015-08-20
SHELL OIL CO
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]In one embodiment of the invention, the size range of the diverter material is selected to enable bridging at the perforations and therefore blockage of fluid flow at the perforation. By essentially blocking flow of fracturing fluid at the perforation, the amount of diverter needed is predictable, and the amount of diverter is also considerably less than if the divertor were to be sized to block fluid flow in the fracture or within the proppant that has been placed within the fracture. Minimizing the amount of diverter material needed reduces costs of the diverter material, the costs and equipment needed to add the diverter material, and minimizes damage caused by the residual of the diverter material left in the formation after degradation of the diverter material.

Problems solved by technology

The greater the flow of fracturing fluid going into a particular fracture, the greater the amount of diverter initially entering the fracture will be, and thus rapidly growing fractures will be limited to essentially the size of the fracture at the time the diverter is injected.

Method used

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  • Method for providing multiple fractures in a formation
  • Method for providing multiple fractures in a formation
  • Method for providing multiple fractures in a formation

Examples

Experimental program
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Effect test

example 1

[0038]Diverter material was obtained from ICO Polymers North America, Inc, located in Akron, Ohio. The material was a polylactate biodegradable polymer with a size distribution of 1 to 2830 micron. In a horizontal well bore that had been drilled, cased, and all but the last three stages were fraced by normal procedures. The last three stages, at the heel end of the wellbore, were combined into one stage to test the effectiveness of one embodiment of the present invention. This section of the wellbore was about eight hundred feet long. This segment was peforated with nine clusters of perforations, the clusters being separated by about 84 feet. The amount of fracturing fluid and proppant used was the normal amount for three stages, or three times the amount used for the previous individual stages. The total amount of proppant pumped was about 900,000 pounds. The proppant and fluid was injected in three roughly equal batches, each batch separated by a slug of diverter material in fluid...

example 2

[0039]For this example, the diverter material was commercially available material, Biovert, from Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., of Houston, Tex. The well was a well equipped with a fiber optic sensor capable of measuring a complete temperature and acoustic profile within the well. With the complete acoustic and temperature profile, as a function of time, the distribution of fracturing fluid going into different perforations within a cluster may be calculated. Typically, without the present invention, it is observed that when a cluster of six perforations are fractured, there will be one to three dominate fractures, with three to five fractures receiving considerably less proppant. Therefore, normal procedures would be to not attempt to fracture more than three clusters per stage. This results in more effective fractures within the wellbore, and more predictable placement of fractures, but increases completion costs. To demonstrate the effectiveness of one embodiment of the prese...

example 3

[0040]Another test to determine if open clusters could be blocked to divert fracture fluids into unopened clusters of perforations in a horizontal well in the Eagle Ford formation. The diverter used was commercially available BioVert from Halliburton. Referring now to FIG. 2, the x-axis is the number for clusters in one stage. The Y axis is the percentage of fracturing fluid and slurry taken by each clusters. During the job, the total fluid and slurry volume were divided into two portions. The first portion was pumped as a regular fracturing procedure. The solid line indicates the percentage of fluid and slurry taken by each cluster during the first portion of the treatment calculated from fiber optic temperature sensor data. The results show that during the first portion of the treatment, there are four clusters taking fluid and slurry, one cluster was taking more than the others. Two clusters did not take any fluids. A diverter slug was pumped after the first portion of treatment....

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Abstract

The invention includes providing a propped hydraulic fractures in a subterranean formation including the steps of: injecting a fracturing fluid into the subterranean formation at a pressure sufficient to initiate and propagate at least one hydraulic fracture wherein the fracturing fluid comprises a proppant; when the at least one hydraulic fracture has reached a target size, adding to the fracturing fluid a predetermined amount of a diverter material wherein the diverter material comprises material having a specified size distribution, and comprising a material that degrades at conditions of the subterranean formation, the diverter material effective to essentially block flow of fracturing fluid into the at least one fracture; and continuing to inject fracturing fluid at a pressure effective to initiate at least one additional fracture within the subterranean formation.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application 61 / 941,583, filed on Feb. 19, 2014, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION[0002]Technology for hydraulic fracturing of formations has advanced rapidly in recent years and has enabled economic development of hydrocarbon resources previously considered to not be economically producible. Typically, long horizontal wells are provided in a target formation and fractures are provided every two hundred to five hundred feet along the length of the horizontal wellbore. Fractures are often provided by methods such as those suggested in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,775,287 and 7,703,525 or US patent application publication US2011 / 0209868. These methods include injection of viscous fluids into the formation at such high pressures and rates that the reservoir rock fails and forms a plane, typically vertical (depending on the direction of minimu...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): E21B43/267E21B43/10E21B43/11
CPCE21B43/267E21B43/10E21B43/11C09K8/80C09K8/516C09K8/70C09K8/74C09K8/92C09K2208/18
Inventor HOLZHAUSER, SHAWN PATRICKQIU, VICTORIA XIAOPING
Owner SHELL OIL CO
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