4.

1 FRACTURING
The fracturing refers to the process of creating fractures in the formation
by injecting fl uids under high pressures. The fractures bypass the well
bore caused by drilling mud fi ltrate, lost circulation additives, completion
fl uids and fi nes migration as a result of which there is reduction in
permeability near well bore. Two major fracturing methods employed in
oil industry are:

Hydraulic fracturing
Acid fracturing

The objectives of fracturing can be any of the following:

Increase economically recoverable reserves

Develop uneconomical reserves
Improve Productivity
Bypass well bore damage
Increase effective well bore radius by providing high conductivity channel

Some of the risks from fracturing jobs are fracturing out of zone into water or gas zone,
mechanical failures resulting from tubular burst/ high pressures, damage to formation from
treatment fluids etc.

4.2.1

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING

In hydraulic fracturing, viscous proppant laden fl uids are pumped at

high enough rates and pressures so as to create an open crack in the
well bore. As a result of this, typically vertical fractures are created.
Then the fracturing pressures are released. The fracture closes on the
proppant. Propped fracture then provides a high conductivity pathway

for the reservoir fl uids to fl ow.

4.2.2
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR HYDRAULIC
FRACTURING
Through modeling and improved techniques, fracturing job can be optimally designed for
size, economics and dimensions / conductivity.

However, rock mechanics plays a large role in the design of fracturing jobs with regard to:

How the formations will fracture?

What the fi nal fracture dimensions will be?

Thus, rock properties must be estimated and modeled as accurate as possible to know the
reaction of rocks to applied and dynamic loads prior to design of hydraulic fracturing jobs.
Some of the rock properties that help in the design of fracturing jobs are:

Poissons

ratio

This is the ratio of lateral to longitudinal strain when stress is applied. It affects the ratio of
horizontal stress that is converted from vertical overburden stress.

Youngs modulus
It is the ratio of stress to strain. A higher ratio gives narrower fracture width.
Stress Profile
Litho logy Profi le
Permeability Profi le
These rock properties are generally estimated from logs and fracture data in near by wells.

4.2.3

FRACTURING STAGES

A fracturing job consists of following stages:

Spearhead
Sometimes, the formations can be difficult to breakdown and under such scenario
spearhead is pumped to reduce formation breakdown pressure.
In this stage, typically 5 - 10 bbl of HCl acid is pumped ahead of pad-half the volume at
matrix acidization rates and the remaining at higher rates.
Pad: Pad stage breaks down of perforations and initiates fracture of required width for
proppant. Proper volumes of fluids are required to be pumped since small pads may not
develop sufficient width for proppant thereby potentially causing screen-outs. Excessive pad
may delay closure for a significant period of time, allowing proppant convection out of zone.
The pumping rates must exceed formation leak-off limits in order to propagate the fracture.
Typically, a rate of 15-25 bbl/min is used and some cases may require higher or lower rates.

Proppant Stages
The proppant stages immediately follow the pad in which fracturing fluid mixed with proppant
is pumped into the formation to generate length and width of the fracture.
Initially proppant slurry of low concentration is pumped since perforations and formation near
well bore may not accept higher concentrations of proppant early in the treatment if the
wedge is not large enough. The proppant concentration is gradually increased in steps of 1 to
2 ppg once the perforations and formation near well bore are eroded.
Flush
In this stage, clean fluid is pumped to displace the proppant to within a short distance of the
perforation and remove it from the well bore. Often low friction, economical fluid is used.
Energized Treatments
These specialized treatments make use of N 2/CO2 and are used in sub-hydrostatic formation
to aid in load fluid recovery.
During hydraulic fracturing job, based on suitability, various pumping configurations such as
through tubing, through casing, down the annulus or through manifold are used to carry out
the job. The other common terminologies used in fracturing jobs are:
Under Flush denotes the volume by which the proppant is under-flushed to the perforation. It
is a safety factor to ensure that proppant in not accidentally over-flushed into the perforation,
as this gives poor conductivity near the well bore.
Fluid Efficiency is defined as the volume of fluid retained in the fracture versus the total fluid
pumped. It varies with time and ranges from 10% to 70% depending on the formation
properties and the type of fluid pumped.
Screen-out generally refers to when pumping stops due to immobile proppant in the
perforation and casing meaning the premature end to the job.
Data Fracturing (Mini Frac) consists of a series of tests to measure closure gradient and
leak-off for checking any near well bore damage.

4.2.4

FRACTURING FLUID SYSTEMS

The basic function of fracturing fluids is to transmit pressure to the formation and transport
proppant into the fracture.

4.2.5

FRACTURING MEDIUM / BASE FLUID

Based on formation and base litho logy types, presence of additional mineral components,
formation fluid nature, objective of fracturing, pumping configuration planned and above all
the economics, various fluids-both Newtonian and Non-Newtonian- are used as fracturing
mediums. Some of them are:

Water-Based

The water-based fracture fluids are extensively used since the base fluid water is cheap and
easily available. They offer excellent rheological properties and leave low residue.

Hydrocarbon Based
The oil based fluids are typically made up of light oils (40 to 52 API) and compatible with
formations containing asphaltene or waxy crude. Since each fluid has different gelling
characteristic, each type of oil must be tested prior to the job.

CO2 Assisted Fluids

The fracture fluid consists of gelled water with CO 2 and such system is used in gas wells with
low reservoir pressure since CO2 being a virtually non-damaging gas does not contribute to
formation damage. It also promotes rapid clean up on account of gas energy and assists in
faster activation of the well through reduction in hydrostatic head in well bore.

Emulsion Based
The emulsion based systems combine two base fluids and a surfactant for viscosity control.
These fluids are reliable and economical and provide high viscosity fluids at low fluid costs.

N2 Foams

Gelled water foamed with N2 with 60 to 75 % foam quality is used for rapid clean-up. The
system is ideal for shallow gas / low pressure applications but for deeper formations the N2
requirements will be very high.

Methanol based

The methanol based systems use 100 % cross-linked methanol and are excellent for
water-sensitive formations. Due to low surface tension and low density, the flow back
is better.

Acid Systems
The acid systems use gellants with acids which retard the acid reaction rates thereby
allowing deeper fracture penetrations and increased fracture etching.

4.2.6

FRACTURING ADDITIVES

The additives used in fracturing fl uids can be categorized into:

4.2.6.1

Primary Components

Gelling agents/ Gellants

The gellants increase the viscosity of the base fl uid to enable it to carry
proppants, decrease the fl uid loss and reduce friction pressure of the
base fl uid.
They break back to near base fl uid viscosity after a set time.
normally used as gellant in Mumbai off shore.

Gaur is

Cross-linkers
The cross linkers increase the molecular weight of base polymer by linking multiple
molecules together and thus significantly increase the viscosity of linear gels. This results in
lower polymer loading and hence less residue. The use of cross linkers provides for high
viscosity fluids at low costs.

Breakers
The breakers degrade viscous gelled fluids back to thin base fluids in a controlled manner.
The percentage of breakers in fracture fluids depends on desired break time, bottom hole
temperature, gel loading, laboratory break test, specific base fluid etc.

4.2.6.2

Secondary components

Buff ers
The buffers are used to adjust and maintain the pH to allow the gellant to hydrate and
maximize viscosity.

Surfactants
The surfactants are used to modify wettability of the formation, create,
break, prevent or stabilize emulsions, disperse additives in oil and
water, lower surface and interfacial tension and help to suspend fi nes

Clay stabilizers

The clay stabilizers minimize permeability impairment from clay

swelling, control migrating clays and help in water-sensitive formations

Other components
Friction reducers
The friction reducers are used to reduce friction pressures of base fl uids
by 30 to 70 % are often used in the fl ush stage to reduce pumping
pressures. They reduce friction by suppressing turbulence. However,
these components are not used in emulsions since they break the
emulsion.

Fluid loss controllers

Typically these are mechanical bridging agents such as silica flour that plug the formation
fracture face to minimize fluid loss into the formation. Generally, a high content of residue is
left that is undesirable.

4.2.7

PROPPANTS

The proppant is used in hydraulic fracturing jobs to prop up the newly

created fracture and keep it open so as to provide a highly conductive
path for fl uids to fl ow
PROPPANT SELECTION CONSIDERATIONS
The following factors are considered while choosing proppants:

Closure stress & Proppant crushing

When closure stress exceeds proppant strength, the proppant is crushed and creates fines.
The fines may plug off the pore throats of larger grains thereby reducing the permeability. For
example, 6% fines can reduce the permeability of frac sand by 90%!!
The size and shape of proppant used determines these properties. Rounded particles are
more crush-resistant than angular particles since angularity creates stress concentrations.
Small particles are more crush-resistant than large proppant particles.
The size of proppant that can be used also depends on the fracture width.

Proppant Pack Conductivity

The proppant pack conductivity severely affects porosity and permeability since small
particles fill up voids between larger grains. Thus mixing two different mesh sizes e.g. 20/40
and 40/70 can dramatically reduce conductivity.
Proppant Flow-back Control
Some formations and proppant tend to flow back with the well production thereby impairing
the fracture.Various methods of flow-back control such as flex-sand, RCP, sand consolidation
treatment and gravel pack jobs can be used to mitigate such flow back problems.

Economics

The cost of proppant also is a major consideration. There are several materials that can be
used as proppant such as plain sand, ceramic proppant, resin coated sand or ceramic and
sintered bauxite.
The cost of sand is the lowest but it offers low crush resistance. The ceramic proppants and
resin coated proppants are costlier but offer better spherecity, higher strength and crush
resistance than sand. The sintered bauxite is the most expensive and has very high strength.
When crushed, it splits instead of shattering and hence still offers decent conductivity. It is
used only for very deep frac jobs.
To summarize, the proppants having low cost for the largest size usable and that offer
adequate flow back control and required conductivity are chosen for a particular job.

4.2.8

FRAC EQUIPMENT

The following main equipments are used during fracturing

jobs:

Blender

The blender is the heart of fracturing treatment and is controlled by a computer for automatic
control of proppant and chemical additions. The various functions of blender include mixing
of base fluids, adding of chemicals and proppants at proper ratios during the treatment and
pressurizing the pumpers with slurry.

Pumpers

The pumpers are used to pump fluids / slurries at various rates. If a pumper goes down, then
other pumpers can grab gears to compensate for the rate drop. Pumpers come in various
horsepower ratings and can be fitted with various size fluid ends to match pressure and rates
designs.

Monitoring units

The monitoring units are used to monitor rates, pressures, slurry densities, liquid additive
rates, actual bottom hole pressure (static or gauge) and sampling.

Miscellaneous
Various tanks and chemical injection facilities are also used.

4.2.9

RECOMMENDED PRACTICES FOR SAFE OPERATIONS

The major hazards during fracturing operations are from high pressures
and acid and other chemicals used. In case oil based fracturing fl uid is
used, there is a fi re hazard too.
In off shore, the fracturing jobs are carried out by WSV Samudra Nidhi
or Hired vessel on contract.
Some of the recommended
fracturing are listed below: -

practices

for

safe

operations

during

1. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FIRE

An area within 30 m of the wellhead should be treated as danger zone
in which no smoking or open fl ames should be permitted .

2. PRESSURIZED VESSELS & PIPELINES

It should be ensured that the wellhead connections

appropriate pressure rating for the fracture job.

are

of

The fracturing unit, connecting lines and control valves should be

tested to a pressure, 10 % above the fracturing pressure.

The relief valve and pressure gauge of the pump should be checked
to ensure that these are in good working condition.

The pipes up to the last valve on wellhead should also be tested at

a pressure, 10 % above the fracturing pressure.

3. GENERAL

A safety meeting should be held prior to the operation and all the
personnel should attend the meeting. The precautions to be taken
during fracturing operations should be explained to all personnel
and it should be ensured that the instructions are clearly
understood by all.
The operation should be carried out during day light hours only.

Persons not connected directly with the fracturing operations must

be kept away from the wellhead and piping area.
All the persons involved in operations should be provided and made
to wear appropriate personal protective equipment.
In case the operations are carried out on a rig deployed at a well,
then the traveling block of the rig should be safely secured to the
mast.
During operations, no attempt should be made to tighten the well
head fi ttings or injection line connections without bleeding off the
pressures.

4.3 ACID FRACTURING

Introduction:
The acid fracturing is used for fracturing carbonate reservoirs using
acid. Some of the features of this technique are:

No proppant is used instead, the acid etches the fractures face in an uneven pattern
Upon closure, this pattern acts much like a proppant pack or a highway, giving a conductive
path to the well fluid to bring it to the well bore

Procedures, Rock Mechanics and Fracture Mechanics are very similar to Proppant Fracturing