Description
The industry has been spending tremendous resources to optimize completion and well spacing by piloting – a trial-and-error and time-consuming approach. The presentation will discuss how to use the latest modeling technologies to speed up the optimization process of well spacing and well completions in unconventional reservoirs. Using a case history of a well completed in the Wolfcamp formation, we first built a 3-D geological and geomechanical model and a full wellbore fracture propagation model, and then calibrated it with the multi-stage fracturing pumping history. The resulting complex fracture network model was then converted into a reservoir simulation model, which was then calibrated with the production history. A couple of blind tests indicated that those models are pretty robust. The modeling results show that the length of those fractures initiated from perforation clusters along the wellbore is in a log-normal distribution depending on completion designs, which provides crucial insights to well interference and furthermore on well spacing. The case study shows that we can reasonably model complex fracture propagation and corresponding well performance with the latest modeling technologies, and then optimize well spacing, which should help operators save significant time and money on well completion and spacing piloting projects, and thus speed up field development decisions.
Registration for this event closes at 6:00 PM CDT on Monday, May 14, 2018.