Dec. 16, 2015


Description

SPECIAL NOTE: THE CORRECT DATE FOR THIS EVENT IS DEC. 16.  The incorrect date was printed in the December 2015 GCS Connect newsletter.  We apologize for this error.

There is little doubt that the success and reliability of frac-pack completions in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) have become the yardstick by which GoM sand control completions are measured.  Simultaneously, stress-caging has become standard practice as a method to overcome the challenges associated with drilling through depleted zones in order to cope with complex mud-window constraints for new developments and infill wells. 

While these two techniques, in isolation, represent uniquely optimal solutions to their individual challenges, there is growing evidence that their application within the same wellbore has the potential to create a major issue.  The stress-cage application is ostensibly based on the premise of creating an increased hoop stress around the wellbore (that may include small, plugged fractures) and thereby an increased fracture gradient, which allows for drilling through substantial depletion.  However, the presence of a range of widely distributed particle sizes in the mud system, as well as increased general solids loading, can result in deep and invasive plugging of the permeable formations and any smaller fractures within the same open-hole sections.  When these plugged formations then become the target for subsequent fracturing operations, there is a significant potential to create near-wellbore issues that complicate or bring into question the ability to install a frac-pack completion. 

This presentation will discuss a number of examples of the application of stress-cage, in which resulting fracturing operations appear to have been hampered or complicated by the drilling of the section with stress-cage material and/or the associated mud conditions.  These examples will provide evidence of such interactions, but just as importantly, demonstrate the potential contradiction that these two techniques represent.  All of this poses the fundamental question of whether we are creating the unfraccable by drilling the undrillable.


Featured Speakers

Speaker Martin Rylance, Senior Advisor and Engineering Team Lead, BP

Martin Rylance is the Senior Advisor and Engineering Team Lead for the Fracturing and Stimulation Group within the BP Global Wells Organization (GWO). He has worked with BP, their partners and JV’s for more than 28 years, since graduating with a BSc (Hons.) in pure mathematics. During his time with …

Martin Rylance is the Senior Advisor and Engineering Team Lead for the Fracturing and Stimulation Group within the BP Global Wells Organization (GWO). He has worked with BP, their partners and JV’s for more than 28 years, since graduating with a BSc (Hons.) in pure mathematics. During his time with BP, he has held the positions of: Interventions Team Lead with BPX in Bogota, Senior Engineer with TNK-bp in Moscow, and Project Manager with BP in a number of frontier exploration areas.


 


Martin has been involved in all technical aspects of pumping operations, well-control, well interventions, and pressure services, including hydraulic fracturing, snubbing, stimulation, coiled-tubing, PWRI, and cuttings re-injection. In more recent years he has specialized in the development of tight oil and gas reservoirs, and hydraulic fracturing in tectonic and HTHP environments. He has numerous papers and publications to his name with the SPE, AIME, and various numerical and geological societies. He is an active member of the SPE, ASME Executive Committee, and served as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer in 2008-09 and 2013-14.     

Full Description



Organizer

Danica Hurd


NOTE TO WEBINAR REGISTRANTS: Webinar sign-in instructions will be emailed with the confirmation email received upon registration and payment.


There may be delays and sound disruptions due to the internet bandwidth at the luncheon facility. 



Date and Time

Wed, Dec. 16, 2015

noon - 1 p.m.
(GMT-0600) US/Central

Event has ended
View Our Refund and Cancellation Policy

Location

At your desk



United States

Group(s): Westside