Abstract
The early development of a systematic approach to well completion practices centralized around multistage hydraulic fracturing treatments is often the critical component to sustainable reservoir exploitation and development. Unfortunately, the exploitation of either exploratory or underdeveloped resources often has a number of issues that include the understanding of geological heterogeneity with different results observed within close proximity and the need to optimize completion techniques to offset the potential rapid decline in well productivity. For these cases, well completion and stimulation practices are of utmost importance with the optimization and evaluation of such designs to include and account for the integration of all reservoir and geomechanical parameters.
Recent vertical well results from initial exploratory wells combined with single-well horizontal pilot wells has accelerated the development plans for the Jimusaer field located in the Junggar basin of western China. This field covers a surface area of 300,000 acres with the targeted reservoir being located between 2,300 to 4,255 m true vertical depth (TVD). The application of horizontal wells from multiwell pads with each well consisting of up to 23 hydraulic fracturing treatments was meant to exploit large volumes of hydrocarbon reserves that were previously thought unattainable. Operationally, the first four wells consisted of 62 hydraulic fracturing stages and were executed within a 28-day period.
The project included the application of an integrated workflow including reservoir characterization along the length of the horizontal well lateral, deployment of novel multistage openhole completion techniques with dissolvable isolation technology, factory fracturing approach with all stages being monitored by microseismic monitoring, and application of chemical tracers on selected stages to identify zonal contribution during flowback and cleanup operations.
This paper describes how the acquisition of crucial reservoir and fracturing data combined with operational performance can identify areas for improvement of future completions while strengthening existing ones.
