Description
Completion and operational issues arise during the management of horizontal wells in naturally fractured reservoir systems. Similar problems have been observed in vertical wells. These observations, which will be discussed, are based on a significant population of wells, which have been evaluated for their completion effectiveness and persistence, reservoir quality, and other performance metrics. There are several common practices that may have unanticipated, often undesirable consequences, unless specific attention is given to mitigating those situations. This discussion documents the probability that the preventative measures can be beneficial. The primary “take-away” is that modest changes in completion and operating practices can have significant long-term benefits.