Hydraulic fracturing while drilling and/or tripping

a technology of hydraulic fracturing and subterranean formation, which is applied in the direction of wellbore/well accessories, survey, sealing/packing, etc., can solve the problems of time-consuming and expensive overall process of creating a productive wellbore, and achieve significant time and cost savings , the effect of reducing the requirements of the crew

Inactive Publication Date: 2016-02-25
SMITH INT INC
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The disclosed embodiments may provide various technical advantages. In particular, the disclosed methods may enable a significant time and cost savings to be realized when drilling and hydraulically fracturing a subterranean wellbore. The disclosed embodiments may further enable a rig having a smaller foot print to be utilized due to sharing of the surface equipment between the drilling and fracturing operations. The disclosed embodiments may further reduce crew requirements as field personnel may be cross trained to perform both drilling and fracturing operations.

Problems solved by technology

The overall process to create a productive wellbore can therefore be time consuming and expensive as it commonly requires removing the drilling and casing equipment and moving in and rigging up the fracturing equipment in addition to performing the actual drilling, casing, and fracturing operations.

Method used

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  • Hydraulic fracturing while drilling and/or tripping
  • Hydraulic fracturing while drilling and/or tripping
  • Hydraulic fracturing while drilling and/or tripping

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embodiment 200

[0030]FIG. 5 depicts a flow chart of one disclosed method embodiment 200. A subterranean wellbore is drilled through a formation of interest at 202, for example, using conventional directional drilling, logging while drilling, and measurement while drilling techniques. During the drilling process in 202 logging while drilling (formation evaluation) data may optionally be acquired and evaluated at 204 in order to precisely locate and tag (identify) locations for subsequent hydraulic fracturing (stimulation). At 206 the surface system and the bottom hole assembly may be reconfigured in preparation for the hydraulic fracturing operation (e.g., by flushing the drilling fluid out of the system and connecting the drill string to the fracturing fluid blender). The drill string is pulled off bottom at 208 such that the fracture port (or ports) are located adjacent a region (or regions) to be fractured. After inflating (or expanding) the packers and thereby sealing the annulus about the frac...

embodiment 300

[0044]FIG. 1 depicts a flow chart of another disclosed method embodiment 300. A subterranean wellbore is drilled through a formation of interest at 202, for example, using conventional directional drilling, logging while drilling, and measurement while drilling techniques (as described above with respect to method 200 and FIG. 5). During the drilling process in 202 logging while drilling (formation evaluation) data may optionally be acquired and evaluated at 204 in order to precisely locate and / or tag (identify) locations for subsequent fracturing (stimulation). After the drilling operation has been finished, the drill string may be tripped out of the wellbore at 306 and the drill bit (and possibly other BHA components) replaced with a hydraulic fracturing assembly such as hydraulic fracturing assembly 100 or 100′ depicted on FIGS. 2 and 8. At 308 the surface system may be reconfigured in preparation for the fracturing operation, for example, as described above at 206 of FIG. 5. Suc...

embodiment 450

[0047]FIG. 13 depicts a flow chart of still another disclosed method embodiment 450, in this case, for fracturing while drilling and casing. Method 450 may employ, for example, one of the drill string configurations depicted on FIGS. 12A and 12B. A subterranean wellbore is drilled through a formation of interest at 452, for example, using a drill string including a casing while drilling assembly (e.g., as described above) and a hydraulic fracturing assembly (such as also described above). After the drilling operation has been completed, the surface system and the bottom hole assembly may be reconfigured at 454 (e.g., as described above at 206 of FIG. 5) in preparation of the fracturing operation. The drill string may be translated upward at 456 such that the frac ports in hydraulic fracturing assembly 430 are located adjacent a region of the formation that is to be fractured. After inflating the packers, high pressure fracturing fluid may then be pumped downhole at 458 to fracture t...

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Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for hydraulically fracturing a subterranean wellbore while drilling and/or tripping are disclosed. A method for hydraulically fracturing a subterranean formation may include rotating a drill string to drill the wellbore and hydraulically fracturing the subterranean formation at a plurality of axially spaced locations along the wellbore while tripping the drill string out of the wellbore. The drill string may include a hydraulic fracturing assembly. The hydraulic fracturing operation may include translating the drill string in an uphole direction so that a set of frac ports in the hydraulic fracturing assembly is adjacent a region of the formation selected for fracturing, expanding at least one pair of packers to seal an annular region of the wellbore exterior to the frac ports, and pumping fracturing fluid downhole through the frac ports to hydraulically fracture the subterranean formation.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]None.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]Disclosed embodiments relate generally to methods and apparatuses for hydraulically fracturing a subterranean formation and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for hydraulically fracturing a subterranean formation while drilling and / or while tripping a drill string out of a well.BACKGROUND INFORMATION[0003]Wellbores are commonly drilled through subterranean formations to enable the extraction of hydrocarbons. Hydraulic fracturing is known to significantly increase the production rates of hydrocarbons in certain subterranean formation types (e.g., those having low fluid and / or gas permeability such as deep shale formations). In one common hydraulic fracturing operation, high pressure fluids are used to create localized fractures in the formation. The fluids may further include proppants (such as sand) to hold open the fractures after the pump pressure is removed thereby enabling hydrocarbons to flo...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): E21B43/26E21B3/00E21B21/01E21B21/10E21B33/124E21B34/16E21B43/10E21B43/14E21B49/00
CPCE21B43/26E21B33/124E21B34/16E21B3/00E21B43/14E21B21/01E21B21/106E21B43/10E21B49/003
Inventor BROWN, JAMES ERNESTUTTER, ROBERT J.COOPER, IAIN M.MILLER, MATTHEW J.POTAPENKO, DMITRIY IVANOVICH
Owner SMITH INT INC
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