Improving Operational Efficiency Using Automated Time Analysis for Multi-Well Pad Fracturing

The economic success of unconventional reservoirs relies on driving down completion costs. Manually measuring the operational efficiency for a multi-well pad can be error-prone and time-prohibitive. Complete automation of this analysis can provide an effortless real-time insight to completion engineers. This study presents a real-time method for measuring the time spent on each completion activity, thereby enabling the identification and potential cost reduction avenues. Two data acquisition boxes are utilized at the completion site to transmit both the fracturing and wireline data in real-time to a cloud server. A data processing algorithm is described to determine the start and end of these two operations for each stage of every well on the pad. The described method then determines other activity intervals (fracturing swap-over, wireline swap-over, and waiting on offset wells) based on the relationship between the fracturing and wireline segments of all the wells. The processed data results can be viewed in real-time on mobile or computers connected to the cloud. Viewing the full operational time log in real-time helps engineers analyze the whole operation and determine key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the number of fractured stages per day, pumping percentage, average fracture, and wireline swap-over durations for a given time period. In addition, the performance of the day and night crews can be evaluated. By plotting a comparison of KPIs for wireline and fracturing times, trends can be readily identified for improving operational efficiency. Practices from best-performing stages can be adopted to reduce non-pumping times. This helps operators save time and money to optimize for more efficient operations. As the number of wells increases, the complexity of manual generation of time-log increases. The presented method can handle multi-well fracturing and wireline operations without such difficulty and in real-time. A case study is also presented, where an operator in the US Permian basin used this method in real-time to view and optimize zipper operations. Analysis indicated that the time spent on the swap over activities could be reduced. This operator set a realistic goal of reducing 10 minutes per swap-over interval. Within one pad, the goal was reached utilizing this method, resulting in reducing 15 hours from the total pad time. The presented method provides an automated overview of fracturing operations. Based on the analysis, timely decisions can be made to reduce operational costs. Moreover, because this method is automated, it is not limited to single well operations but can handle multi-well pad completion designs that are commonplace in unconventionals.