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This presentation will touch on elements from three of Mike’s more popular seminars:  

• Confessions of a Frac Engineer: Things I wish a geologist had taught me

• Proppant performance: Recognizing that fractures degrade

• Refracs:  When do they work and when do they fail?

 

We often envision fractures as if they were simple, planar features that are relatively consistent in width and durable in their flow capacity.  Photographs from minebacks and core-throughs of actual fractures will be shown, along with the performance implications.  Our oversimplified models typically result in poorly designed completions and missed opportunities.  Frequently, we blame the underperformance of a well on “poor reservoir quality” instead of correctly recognizing the inadequacy of our created fractures.

 

Mike has recently written two large papers summarizing the refrac results from more than 140 published restimulation studies.  He will only have time to touch on refrac issues during this presentation, but promises to share some refrac thoughts and references.  

 

There are numerous misconceptions regarding the proportions, dimensions, complexity, and performance of hydraulic fractures.  However, the great news is that the reservoirs are frequently capable of providing greater production rates, if we can determine the best way to stimulate them!