The goal of this project is to lessen formation damage and improve the success rate of stimulation treatments in low-permeability reservoirs.
Cementing Solutions, Inc.
Stim-Lab, Inc.
HEP Oil Co.
Location:
Houston, TX 77092
Many of today’s operators find that their stimulation treatments are not as successful as expected. Hydraulic fractures grow into adjacent zones or else do not reach the predicted length in the productive zone. Poor production performance can also result from the departure of the stimulation energy to the annulus and other zones because of an inadequate cement seal.
This project will develop an understanding of the relationship between cement seal effectiveness and post-stimulation production performance using baseline information on formation damage, hydraulic seals, fracture mechanics, and physical-property measurements. Physical and numerical modeling of the hydraulic seal created by a cemented annulus will be conducted and the results will be confirmed by conducting optimized application designs for the cementing and fracturing treatments on a number of candidate wells.
This project will document the importance of zone isolation when performing stimulation treatments in low-permeability formations. It has the potential to reveal critical properties of set cement that could influence the effectiveness of stimulation treatments. It will also reveal crucial issues related to cement materials or cementing techniques, the adjustment of which could greatly enhance a stimulation treatment. The results of this project will provide the industry with an understanding of the significance that incomplete mud removal, mud filter cake, zone isolation, and pressure transmission have on stimulation effectiveness, which in turn will highlight the need for industry to pay more attention to cement design and cementing techniques. This understanding could have an important impact on every stimulation treatment performed in the future. The proper recognition of the role of zone isolation in stimulation treatment effectiveness will help to modernize the way that cement jobs are designed and carried out for low-permeability reservoirs.
Results:
This project has been completed. The final project report is available below under "Additional Information".
$490,296
$382,450
NETL - Gary Covatch (gary.covatch@netl.doe.gov or 304-285-4589)
Cementing Solutions, Inc. - Fred Sabins (fsabins@cementingsolutions.com or 281-784-7902)
Final Report - April 2005: Increasing Production from Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs by Optimizing Zone Isolation for Successful Stimulation [PDF-15022KB]
Decision Matrix Spreadsheet - [PDF - 52KB]