SPE-184835-MS

Engineering an Effective Completions and Stimulation Strategy for In-Fill

Wells

Kush Gakhar, Yuri Rodionov, Cyrille Defeu, Dan Shan, Raj Malpani, Efe Ejofodomi, and Karsten Fischer,
Schlumberger

Copyright 2017, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition held in The Woodlands, Texas, USA, 24-26 January
2017.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
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Abstract
As the oil & gas industry enters into next phase of unconventional reservoir development, many new in-fill
wells will be drilled in various shale oil and gas plays in North America. A detailed evaluation to devise
an engineered approach for stimulating and completing these wells is critical to maximize productivity.
Challenging economics that prevail today has made it even more vital to perform such a study. This paper
focusses on identifying optimum stimulation treatment design and completions strategy for the in-fill well.
This work along with a previously published study on developing an engineered approach for multi-well
pad development in Eagle Ford Shale, URTeC 2431182 will serve as a comprehensive guide for multi-well
pad performance optimization in unconventional reservoirs like Eagle Ford Shale. In this paper terms "in-
fill" well and "child" well have been used interchangeably.
An Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow is used to execute the complex study. The workflow
involves building a 3D structural geologic model based on a vertical openhole pilot well log in Eagle Ford
shale reservoir. A discrete fracture network (DFN) is built from 3D seismic data interpretation. Hydraulic
fracture treatment pumped on a parent well is simulated using Unconventional Fracture Model (UFM).
The UFM simulates complex fractures, while honoring interaction between hydraulic fractures and natural
fractures. A dynamic grid with unstructured cells is then created. Hydrocarbon production from the parent
well is simulated for a period of 400 days. A geomechanical finite element model (FEM) based simulator
which is fully coupled with a 3D numerical reservoir simulator is then used to calculate spatial and temporal
changes in in-situ stresses. Dynamic reservoir properties in the 3D model are then updated and the child
well which is drilled 600 ft. away from the parent well is built into the model. UFM is used to simulate an
array of stimulation treatment designs and compare alternate completions strategies for the child well. The
reservoir simulator is then used to compare production performance of the alternate strategies.
Extensive evaluation is carried out using the Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow to achieve three
key objectives. The first key objective is to determine an appropriate hydraulic fracturing treatment design
for an in-fill well. Four hydraulic fracture treatment designs based on slickwater, delayed borate crosslinked
gels, hybrid fluid treatments and fiber based channel fracturing fluids for the in-fill are compared. It has
been found that under reservoir conditions specific to this study, the child well produces 22% more oil, if
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stimulated using the fiber based channel fracturing fluid than, if fractured using the slickwater. The second
key objective is to compare the impact of refracturing and recharging the parent well prior to fracturing
the child well. For the study well, refracturing increases oil production from the multi-well pad by 11%
over the scenario, when the parent well is recharged by injecting 43,200 bbl of water. The third objective
of this study pertains to comparing traditional plug-and-perf completions design with an alternate based
on coupling plug-and-perf with novel Sequenced Fracturing technique with a degradable fiber based
fluid diversion blend for the child well. It has been found that by using the latest Sequenced Fracturing
technique oil production from the multi-well pad can be increased by 14% over a scenario where the child
well is completed using traditional plug-and-perf design, despite pumping fewer stages on the well. The
novel completion technique also greatly improves operations efficiency and provides significant savings
on completions cost.

Introduction
In the next phase of unconventional reservoir development the focus has logically shifted towards
optimizing production performance of in-fill wells. In-fill wells are drilled in vicinity of depleted sections
of reservoir created from the parent well production. Challenging reservoir conditions make it vital for the
industry to devise an economically viable and effective technique for completing and stimulating new in-
fill wells.
This study is carried out using an Eagle Ford shale data set. However, the versatile Advanced Integrated
Modeling Workflow can be used to develop similar solutions for other unconventional plays globally. Eagle
Ford shale is one of the most prolific unconventional plays in North America. Till date more than 12,000
horizontal wells (IHS) are known to be producing from this hydrocarbon rich shale play. Eagle Ford shale
is classified into five distinct lithostratigraphic units, A-E as shown in Fig. 1 (Donovan et al. 2010; Gardner
et al. 2013).

Figure 1 Lozier canyon, Texas; Eagle Ford shale outcrop and associated log with 5 lithostratigraphic units (Xu et al. 2016)

The B unit of Eagle Ford is rich in total organic carbon (TOC) and has good permeability and porosity.
The B unit is further subdivided into B1-B2 and B3-B5. The B1-B2 unit is the primary pay zone, while
the B3-B5 unit is rich in kaolinite and smectite based ash beds. In previous studies carried out by Gakhar
et al. 2016 and Xu et al. 2016, it was shown that it is critical to take into account the impact of ash beds
and dynamic reservoir properties such as reservoir pressure and in-situ stresses, when developing a multi-
well pad in the Eagle Ford shale reservoir. Based on learnings from the previous study (Gakhar et al. 2016)
SPE-184835-MS 3

parent and child well spacing is fixed at 600 ft. in this study. The child well is also landed in the primary pay
unit, B1-B2 of the Eagle Ford shale and is drilled after the parent well has produced for 400 days, Fig. 2.

Figure 2 Multi-well pad placement configuration in Eagle Ford Shale

The Eagle Ford shale play is intensely naturally fractured (Grossi et al. 2015 and Offenberger et al. 2013).
These natural fractures serve as planes of weakness for shear failure during hydraulic fracturing thereby
leading to creation of complex hydraulic fractures. An advanced numerically gridded fracture simulator,
UFM honors the interaction between induced hydraulic fractures and existing natural fractures (Chuprakov
et al. 2013). In the UFM simulation hydraulic fracture cross natural fractures, if the compressive stress acting
perpendicular to the frictional interface is sufficient to prevent slip along the interface at the moment when
the tip of hydraulic fracture contacts the interface and the induced stress on the opposite side is sufficient
to initiate a tensile fracture (Kresse et al. 2011 and Gakhar et al. 2016). Also, during UFM simulation the
impact of inter and intra-stage stress shadow is taken into account. Unlike traditional planar fracture models
which overestimate fracture length and ignore the impact of natural fractures, UFM simulates complex
fractures while solving an array of equations governing fracture deformation, height growth, fluid flow
and proppant transport for multiple propagating fracture tips. Integration of UFM with a reservoir centric
simulation platform that also includes dynamic reservoir simulation and finite element based geomechanical
simulator enables development of the Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow. The workflow can be
used to develop an efficient fit-for-purpose solution for multi-well production performance optimization.
As part of multi-well pad optimization study, stimulation treatment designs typical to Eagle Ford for an in-
fill well with a 5,000 ft. lateral based on slickwater, crosslinked gels, hybrid fluids and fiber based Channel
Fracturing fluids are compared using the Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow. As a second objective
this study evaluates the impact of both refracturing the parent well and recharging the depleted reservoir
sections near the parent well by water injection prior to bringing the child well online. Third objective of this
study is to compare traditional plug-and-perf completions design with Sequenced Fracturing completion
technique for the child well drilled in vicinity of depleted sections of the reservoir. The Sequenced Fracturing
technique (Viswanathan et al. 2014 and Malpani et al. 2015) uses a novel composite fluid blend formed of
degradable fibers and multi-size particles. The material is designed to improve perforation efficiency and
divert stimulation treatment fluid towards previously under stimulated regions of the reservoir.

Modeling Workflow and Results

Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow, Fig. 3 (Gakhar et al. 2016, Malpani et al. 2015 and Ejofodomi
et al. 2015) has been used to efficiently execute a complex production optimization study for a multi-well
4 SPE-184835-MS

pad with a parent and a child well. The advanced workflow involves seamless integration of petrophysics,
complex fracture modeling, reservoir simulation and geomechanics. The comprehensive and efficient nature
of the workflow allows for building reliable solutions to the problems associated with multi-well pad
development. This includes child well stimulation treatment design optimization, evaluating the impact
of refracturing and recharging the parent well on the pad performance and developing an effective and
economical completions design for the child well.

Figure 3 Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow (Gakhar et al. 2016)

A 3D structural geocellular model is build based on a vertical openhole pilot well log (Fig. 4, Gakhar
et al. 2016). The log measurements are calibrated with core samples to accurately obtain critical reservoir
properties such as permeability, porosity, fluid saturation and in-situ stresses etc. Calibrated compressional
and shear sonic log data is used to derive mechanical properties for the area of interest. A 3D discrete
fracture network (DFN) is build using Ant Tracking technique which relies on identifying distinct features
associated with small displacement faulting and discontinuities from 3D seismic data and combined with
regional fracture trends from image logs in the area of interest to characterize natural fracture intensity,
compliance and heterogeneity (Offenberger et al. 2013, Marongiu-Porcu et al. 2015 and Gakhar et al. 2016).
Dominant fracture set is oriented at 75 azimuth and secondary fracture set is oriented nearly orthogonally
at 145 azimuth. The dominant natural fracture are assumed to be mineralized and have cohesion value
of 100 psi and coefficient of friction of 0.6. The assumed values of cohesion and coefficient of friction
have an impact on hydraulic fracture and natural fracture interaction (Kresse et al. 2011). Prior to running
UFM simulations for the parent well, the 3D DFN is converted into a 2D DFN, Fig. 5. The 2D DFN is
heterogeneous along the lateral, but uniform across all geologic zones vertically.
SPE-184835-MS 5

Figure 4 Vertical openhole pilot well log, Eagle Ford shale play (Gakhar et al. 2016)

A parent well with completion design typically associated with an early generation horizontal well in
Eagle Ford shale play is built into the model. The well has a 5,000 ft. lateral section and is landed at 9000 ft.
TVD in the B1-B2 unit. The parent well is completed with 100 perforation clusters, 1 ft. each and 0.42 in.
diameter with 6 shots per foot distributed in 20 stages. A hybrid fracturing treatment design, composed of
slickwater pad followed by a 30 lbs. delayed borate crosslinked gel system as described by Gakhar et al. 2016
6 SPE-184835-MS

and Marongiu-Porcu et al. 2015 is simulated using the UFM model. The design involves pumping 5,000
bbl of fluid and 279,000 lbs. of 20/40 sand at 50 bpm. The UFM simulation results show complex fractures
simulated for all 20 stages, Fig. 5. Varying degree of complexity observed along the lateral is a function of
DFN density and principal horizontal stress anisotropy (Weng et al. 2011, Chuprakov et al. 2013, Wallace et
al. 2016 and Gakhar et al. 2016). Average hydraulic height from UFM results is approximately 140 ft. and
propped half-length is approximately 600 ft. This compares well with frac geometry estimated from other
techniques such as microseismic data interpretation for comparable wells in the Eagle Ford shale play.

Figure 5 2D DFN and parent well UFM simulation

Following the UFM simulation an unstructured production grid is created using an automatic gridding
algorithm. The unstructured grid retains the complex fracture signature by assigning finer grid cell size
to the simulated complex hydraulic fractures and bigger cell size to matrix. The unstructured grid created
after parent well UFM simulation has about 630,000 cells and retains all properties and structure from the
original 3D geologic model, which is based on the vertical openhole pilot well log. A black oil fluid model
representative of the area of interest is build (Gakhar et al. 2016). The reservoir model has oil API gravity of
38, gas specific gravity of 0.6 and bubble point pressure of 4,000 psi. Reservoir pressure in the B1-B2 unit,
where parent well is landed is approximately 7,700 psi. Relative permeability curves that govern multiphase
fluid flow and compaction curves that represent reduction in flow capacity of the reservoir with pressure
are build. Cumulative production data for about 250 wells is extracted from a public data base and a P50
production profile is build (Marongiu-Porcu et al. 2015). The reservoir model is then calibrated such that
oil production from the parent well for first 400 days is close to P50 production profile from a comparable
horizontal well in the Eagle Ford shale play. Reservoir simulation results show reservoir pressure depletion
from 7,700 psi to as low as 3,200 psi in the near wellbore region.
As the reservoir depletes with parent well production, in-situ stresses change in magnitude and
orientation. The change in in-situ stress is computed by a 3D geomechanical finite element (FE) solver
which is couples to the reservoir simulator (Gakhar et al. 2016). The geomechanical simulation also takes
into account rock mechanical properties of all involved lithologies including lateral property variations
SPE-184835-MS 7

provided by seismic inversion (Giroldi et al. 2014). An equivalent material approach (Pande, Beer, &
William, 1990; Koutsabeloulis & Rylance, 1992; Koutsabeloulis & Hope, 1988; Zhang, Koutsabeloulis, &
Heffer, 2007; Rodriguez-Herrera, Suarez, Handwerge, & Herring, 2013) is used to also account for natural
fracture network. The approach requires strength parameters and the shear and normal stiffness of the natural
fractures to be specified. The FE solver then creates an effective stiffness matrix by combining compliance
matrices of the intact rock and the discontinuities. The stiffness matrix is modified based on natural fracture
orientation and density and their impact on stress computation and results is also considered.
The geomechanical simulations carried out in this study assume elastic deformation behavior as a first
order approximation (Gakhar et al. 2016). Plastic deformation is accounted for during hydraulic fracture
modeling in UFM. Also, since the study focuses on computing stress change during depletion, the amount
of plastic deformation is expected to be low. The coupled reservoir simulator feeds in updated pressure
profile to the geomechanical simulator at select time steps during the production phase. The simulator
then computes corresponding 3D change in stress, deformation and rock displacement in the reservoir and
beyond in the adjacent rock formation. In this way, the spatial and temporal changes in in-situ stress field
from parent well production are computed. Updating the stress field post parent well production history is a
critical element that should not be ignored while devising an in-fill well placement and stimulation strategy.
The geomechanical simulator computes changes in in-situ stress magnitude and orientation corresponding
to reservoir pressure after 400 days of production from the parent well, Fig. 6 and Fig. 7.

Figure 6 Change in reservoir pressure and SHmax orientation with parent well production
8 SPE-184835-MS

Figure7Change in Shmin magnitude with parent well production

Following this the 3D model is updated with the changes in dynamic properties such as reservoir pressure,
fluid saturation, solution gas-oil ratio and in-situ stresses and the in-fill well is built into the model. In a
previously conducted study (Gakhar et al. 2016) optimum parent and child well spacing was identified as
600 ft. Learnings from the previous study are applied to this study and a child well is build into the updated
3D model with 600 ft. spacing and landed in B1-B2 unit of Eagle Ford like the parent well. The child well
also has a 5,000 ft. lateral and is completed with 24 stages with 7 perforation clusters per stage and 3 shots
per foot. This completion design reflects current industry trend in the Eagle Ford Shale play. Parent well
simulations using the Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow lay a strong foundation for evaluating the
following three key objectives that are essential for optimizing multi-well pad production performance.

Objective 1: Hydraulic Fracturing Treatment Design for the In-fill Well

In an effort towards developing a comprehensive solution to an in-fill well production optimization problem,
a key step is to identify an optimum hydraulic fracturing treatment design for the in-fill well. In this study
four different treatment designs that are typically pumped on horizontal wells in the Eagle Ford shale play
are evaluated. These designs involve pumping slickwater, delayed borate crosslinked gel system, hybrid
fluid systems and fiber based Channel Fracturing fluids. In three of the four designs, which are based
on slickwater, crosslinked gel and hybrid fluids cumulative amount of proppant pumped on each stage is
300,000 lbs. However for the treatment design based on Channel Fracturing technique, 178,000 lbs. of
proppant is pumped on each stage. The stimulation treatment designs have been summarized in Tables 1-4.
SPE-184835-MS 9

Table 1Design 1 Slickwater based treatment for the in-fill well

Table 2Design 2 Borate crosslinked based treatment for the in-fill well
10 SPE-184835-MS

Table 3Design 3 Hybrid fluid based treatment for the in-fill well

Table 4Design 4 Channel Fracturing fluid based treatment for the in-fill well
SPE-184835-MS 11

Design 1 involves pumping 5,600 bbls of slickwater frac fluid and 300,000 lbs of 100 mesh and 40/70
sand. The treatment is pumped at 70 bpm and proppant concentration ranges from as low as 0.25 PPA
to as high as 2.5 PPA. Slickwater fluids because of low viscosity are expected to create fractures with
relatively larger surface area that are more contained in height than high viscosity fluids. Such fluids also
have relatively poorer proppant carrying ability and thus create fractures which are less conductive. Design
2 is based on 25 lbs. delayed borate crosslinked gel system, which is more viscous and efficient than the
slickwater. In Design 2, 3,100 bbl of fluid is pumped at 70 bpm along with 300,000 lbs. of 30/50 sand. The
proppant concentration ranges from 0.5 PPA to 5 PPA. Design 3 is a hybrid fluid system with a slickwater
pad of 560 bbl. About 140,000 lbs of 100 mesh sand is pumped using the slickwater fluid. The remainder
of 160,000 lbs of proppant is pumped using 20 lbs. linear gel. The idea behind pumping hybrid fluids is to
create vertically contained, yet conductive fractures from the stimulation treatment. Design 4 is based on
Channel Fracturing technique (Johnson et al. 2011). It involves intermittent proppant pumping in short
pulses separated by pulses of clean fluid in order to create highly conductive flow channels with stable voids
within the proppant pack. The treatment is pumped with degradable fibers which minimize the dispersion
of proppant pulses by modifying the rheology of proppant slug and also minimize proppant settling (Gillard
et al. 2010). Such a technique is known to minimize the risk of screen out, reduce proppant requirement and
also improve initial and long term productivity of wells (Medvedev et al. 2013). Last stage in Design 4 is
referred as a tail-in stage. The goal of this stage is to create a stable connection between the channel fracture
and the wellbore, which is critical for a long term sustained production from the child well. In Design 4
178,000 lbs. of proppant is pumped per stage with 3,600 bbl of fluid. So, the proppant volume pumped is
41% less than the other 3 designs.
Prior to running UFM simulations on the child well, DFN is modified by combining the original DFN,
which was used for the parent well hydraulic fracture modeling with induced hydraulic fractures simulated
by UFM for the parent well. The UFM simulation results for the 4 treatment designs are summarized in
Fig. 8. It can be seen in Fig.8 that the frequency of frac hits on the parent well is relatively less when the
Channel Fracturing fluid or crosslinked gel is pumped versus the scenarios when hybrid fluid treatment
or slickwater treatment is pumped on the child well. This is largely due to higher fluid volumes pumped at
high rates leading to bigger hydraulic fracture geometry. Such frac hits can be detrimental to both parent
and child well production. However, it can also be seen that Channel Fracturing fluids create relatively
bigger propped surface area with better conductivity than slickwater and hybrid fluids (Fig. 8b).

Figure 8a UFM simulation results from four alternate fracturing treatment designs for the in-fill well
12 SPE-184835-MS

Figure 8b UFM simulation results summary from four alternate fracturing treatment designs for the in-fill well

Following UFM simulations for the child well, unstructured production grids are created for each of
the four designs. Unstructured production grids incorporate both the parent and the child well. Complex
fracture geometry simulated by UFM is carried over into the grid by assigning finer cell size of 25 ft. for
the fractures and bigger cell of 200 ft. for matrix. The dynamic reservoir simulator is then used to simulate
production from both the parent and the child well for all four designs under same bottom hole pressure
(BHP) conditions for a period of 400 days. The reservoir simulation results are summarized in Fig. 9 and
Fig.10.

Figure 9 In-fill well oil production comparison

SPE-184835-MS 13

Figure 10 Multi-well pad oil production comparison

Oil production from the child well fractured using Design 3 and 4, which are based on borate crosslinked
gel and Channel Fracturing technique respectively is approximately 80% of the parent well's production in
first 400 days. Difference between cumulative oil production from the child well fractured using Design 3
and 4 is less than 1%, despite pumping 40% less proppant in Design 4. Channel Fracturing based treatment
designs also enable the child well to produce approximately 22% more than the slickwater based treatment,
Fig. 9. This can be attributed to better fracture conductivity created by the fiber based Channel Fracturing
fluids and relatively less interference between the parent and the child well. Hybrid fluid systems also enable
the child well to produce approximately 18% more than if fractured using the slickwater fluids. At the pad
level, Channel Fracturing fluids are expected to produce approximately 49% more than the case when the
child well is fractured using slickwater. It is also about 13% more than the crosslinked based design and 32%
more than the hybrid fluid based design. This can be explained from Fig.11, where it can be seen that with
low viscosity fluids like slickwater and hybrid oil production performance of the parent well is damaged.
This is illustrated from higher pressures observed near the parent well after the multi-well pad has produced
for 400 days. In other words there is an increase in frequency of frac hits or well interference between the
parent and child wells, when low viscosity fluids like slickwater are pumped.

Figure 11 Reservoir pressure depletion after 400 days of production from the multi-well pad
14 SPE-184835-MS

Conclusions derived from the simulation results are cemented by the real production data (IHS) from
50 wells drilled in vicinity of each other in the Eagle Ford shale. Results from the data are summarized
in Fig. 12. It can be seen that average production from wells fractured using Channel Fracturing design
is approximately 24% more than the wells fractured using slickwater based treatment. Also, such fluids
perform about 16% better than hybrid fluids and 3% better than crosslinked gels.

Figure 12 Average best 1 year production from 50 wells drilled in Eagle Ford shale play

Objective 2: Refrac or Recharge the Parent Well

Second key objective of this study is to compare the production performance of the two well pad under 2
scenarios. Scenario 1, when the parent well has been refraced versus Scenario 2, when the depleted reservoir
sections near the parent well are recharged with water injection at low rates, prior to fracturing the child
well. This is the first time that the Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow has been used to efficiently
simulate both refrac and recharge scenarios, as an effort towards multi-well pad performance optimization.
Post parent well production simulation, a refrac treatment design for the parent well is simulated using
UFM. Cumulative volume of frac fluid and proppant pumped during refracturing is same as the original
fracturing treatment pumped on the parent well, which is approximately 93,000 bbl of treatment fluid and
5.5 MM lbs of 20/40 proppant (Gakhar et al. 2016). However, the refrac stimulation treatment is divided
into two different treatment designs, Reconnect and Restimulation (Malpani et al. 2015 and Charry et
al. 2016). The Reconnect treatment involves pumping smaller treatment designs along with near wellbore
diverters until the instantaneous shut-in pressure (ISIP) measurements recorded during the job, reach the
value close to the numbers observed during the original treatment. Getting into the original ISIP range during
the Reconnect phase indicates the possibility of contacting new or previously under stimulated rock. Once
this has been achieved, bigger stimulation treatment designs also known as Restimulation treatments are
pumped. The goal during Restimulation phase is to create big conductive fractures within the pay zone to
drain previously undrained sections of the reservoir.
In this study the smaller Reconnect stages are pumped with approximately 2,300 bbl of 30 lbs. crosslinked
gel and 139,000 lbs of 20/40 proppant. While, the Restimulation stages are pumped with 7,000 bbl
of 30 lbs. crosslinked gel and 418,000 lbs. of 20/40 proppant. During the UFM simulation for refracs,
updated 3D stress magnitude and orientation from the geomechanical simulator and the updated DFN, which
SPE-184835-MS 15

incorporates both natural fractures and induced hydraulic fractures from the original treatment is considered.
Smaller Reconnect treatment design is simulated for 10 stages that lie along the most depleted sections of
the reservoir and bigger Restimulation treatment is simulated for the rest of the 10 stages.
Reservoir pressure depletion and subsequent change in principal horizontal stress anisotropy and
orientation has a significant impact on complexity of refracs. In the near wellbore regions, where there
is a severe depletion and re-orientation of maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) direction, the impact on
complexity of refracs is clearly visible, Fig.13. UFM simulation results show the average frac half-length
from refrac treatment pumped on the parent wells is 436 ft. and average height is 129 ft.

Figure 13 Parent well refrac prior to fracturing the child well

The geomechanical FEM is then used to calculate change in stress magnitude and orientation post parent
well refrac. This is a critical step in the workflow, as the post refrac stress change near parent well will
have a significant impact on geometry and performance of hydraulic fractures created on the child well
drilled 600 ft. away from the parent well. It can be seen that in the reservoir region where new fractures
are created from refracturing, in-situ stresses magnitude and orientation is altered again to maintain the
system in geomechanical equilibrium, Fig.13. It is critical to take into account post refrac stress change prior
to simulating frac treatment on the child well in order to get an accurate assessment of well interference
and overall pad performance. Once the in-situ stresses have been updates in the 3D model along with the
DFN, which now includes the original DFN, induced hydraulic fractures from the first hydraulic fracturing
treatment pumped on the parent well and the refracs, UFM simulation is run for the child well. Since, it was
concluded from Objective 1, that Design 4 based on Channel Fracturing technique is the most effective
stimulation treatment out of the four designs evaluated in this study, same design is pumped on the child
well. An unstructured production grid is then created. The new multi-well grid includes hydraulic fractures
from the first treatment and refrac treatment pumped on the parent well and the hydraulic fractures created
on the child well from Design 4. The multi-well dynamic grid has about 1.3 MM cells.
A potentially low cost alternate to refracturing the parent well is recharging the previously drained
sections of the reservoir by injecting a low viscosity fluid like water below frac gradient of formation. In this
study a scenario where about 43,200 bbl of water is injected at the rate of 7,200 bbl/d is simulated using the
dynamic reservoir simulator. Post recharge pressure increase is fed into the geomechanical simulator and
associated change in in-situ stresses are determined. It can be seen in Fig. 14 that post recharge reservoir
pressure rises by approximately 1,000 psi in this case. Dynamic reservoir properties are then updated in
the 3D model, prior to running UFM simulation with Design 4 for the child well. UFM simulation results
for the child well post recharging of the parent well are shown in Fig. 14. Average hydraulic fracture half-
length was 526 ft. and average height was 125 ft. for the child well. Following UFM simulations for the
16 SPE-184835-MS

2 scenarios, oil production from the multi-well pad is predicted for a period of 400 days. It can be seen
from Fig. 15, that refracturing of the parent well boosted cumulative oil production from the multi-well pad
by just around 4% over Scenario 3, where the parent well is neither refraced or recharged. Recharging of
the parent well is found to be worst. It leads to a drop in oil production from the pad by 7% than Scenario
3. Also, as seen from Fig. 16, Scenario 1 or the refrac case has the biggest and most uniform estimated
stimulated volume or the drained area. As seen from circled regions in Fig. 16, Scenario 2 has relatively
bigger sections of the reservoir that are left undrained than Scenario 1.

Figure 14 Parent well recharge prior to fracturing the child well

Figure 15 Multi-well pad oil production comparison

SPE-184835-MS 17

Figure 16 Reservoir pressure depletion after 400 days of production from the multi-well pad

Poor performance of the recharge scenario is attributed to damage caused to existing parent well fractures
from the original treatment by water injection. Even in Scenario1, when the parent well is refraced prior to
fracturing the child well incremental production of just 4% can be very low. Especially in today's time of
low prices, 4% uplift might not justify the cost of such a treatment. However in previous studies by Malpani
et al. 2015, Morales et al. 2016, Pankaj et al. 2016 and Charry et al. 2016, refracs have been shown to be
substantially beneficial. Thus, it can be concluded that refracturing of a parent well can aid in increasing the
overall multi-well pad production, however the benefits can be viable only if the candidate well is selected
judiciously. If a right candidate well is chosen then refracturing has a potential of reducing frac hits on the
parent well (Morales et al. 2016) and also restoring near wellbore conductivity of existing fractures and
creating new fractures to boost the production from a multi-well pad. In scenarios like in this study, when
the parent well production had caused a significant reservoir depletion over time, refrac treatment might
not be significantly beneficial.

Objective 3: Plug-and-Perf vs. Sequenced Fracturing

Final objective of this study is to compare traditional completions technique of plug-and-perf with an
alternate strategy of coupling plug-and-perf with Sequenced Fracturing technique which uses a novel
degradable fiber based fluid diversion blend for the child well. Use of fibers in the diversion blend aids in
stabilizing fluid fronts and also prevents slug dispersion when displaced. Addition of fibers in the diversion
blend also reduces the amount of diverter material needed to effectively divert frac fluid to undrained
sections of the reservoir (Viswanathan et al. 2014). Sequenced Fracturing allows for extending stage
spacing thereby reducing completions cost and improving operational efficiency for multi-stage horizontal
wells. Use of near wellbore diverters also becomes increasingly important for the in-fill wells, which in most
cases are drilled in vicinity of depleted sections of the reservoir. They can potentially improve perforation
efficiency by reducing the frac initiation pressure differential between the perforation clusters by plugging
the low stress regions in the initial phase of a stage treatment.
Ability to simulate near wellbore diversion based on completions, treatment design and 3D reservoir
properties is another unique ability of the Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow. In Scenario 1, plug-
and-perf completions design is used and the child well is completed with 24 stages, 200 ft. each. Each stage
18 SPE-184835-MS

has 7 perforation clusters. Average stage spacing is 49 ft. On the other hand in Scenario 2 which is based
on Sequenced Fracturing average stage length is extended to 350 ft. This reduces the number of stage to
14. In both the scenarios cumulative amount of proppant pumped on the child well is approximately 4.2
MM lbs and frac fluid volume is approximately 87,000 bbl. Design 4 treatment design, which is based on
Channel Fracturing technique is pumped on each stage in both scenarios.
Following UFM simulation for the child well, unstructured production grids are created for both
scenarios. The dynamic grids in both the scenarios include both the parent well and the child well. Production
simulation results for the multi-well pad for both the scenarios are summarized in Fig.17. It can be seen
that under reservoir conditions specific to this study, when the child well is completed using Sequenced
Fracturing technique, oil production from the multi-well pad can be increased by 14% despite having
pumped fewer stages than Scenario 1, Fig.17. Pumping less stages can also lead to substantial saving in the
completions cost, which can be critical in current times of low oil prices. As seen in Fig.18, Sequenced
Fracturing aids in accessing previously undrained sections of the reservoir, thereby leading to overall better
multi-well pad production performance.

Figure 17 Multi-well pad oil production comparison

Figure 18 Reservoir pressure depletion after 400 days of production from the multi-well pad
SPE-184835-MS 19

Conclusions
This study is an attempt to achieve three critical objectives targeted at optimizing multi-well pad
production performance optimization. The first objective is focused on determining most effective and
viable stimulation treatment design for an in-fill well drilled in vicinity of depleted sections of the reservoir.
Second objective focuses on evaluating the impact of refracturing and recharging the parent well prior to
fracturing the child well and the third objective is to evaluate the impact of using Sequenced Fracturing
diversion technique on the in-fill well. This study along with a previously published work, URTeC 2431182
serve as a comprehensive guide for developing an engineered solution for multi-well pad development.
Conclusions derived from this study are applicable only under specific reservoir conditions. However, the
Advanced Integrated Modeling Workflow can be used for developing a fit-for-purpose multi-well pad
development strategy for all unconventional reservoirs.

Fiber based Channel Fracturing fluid can increase oil production from the multi-well pad by 49%,
than if low viscosity fluids like slickwater are used to fracture the child well.

Better performance of such fluid systems is attributed to better proppant carrying ability and
relatively lesser interference between the parent and the child well.
Use of such fluid systems also reduces the proppant requirement by 41% than design based on
crosslinked gel without compromising on production performance.
Refracturing a parent well prior to fracturing the child well can increase cumulative oil production
from the multi-well pad by 4%.

Selecting a right candidate for refracturing is critical. Refracs can be more viable, if there is
poor near wellbore connectivity or large sections of the reservoir have been left undrained after
the original treatment.
Recharging the parent well by injecting approximately 43,000 bbl of water can reduce cumulative
oil production from the multi-well pad by 7%.

Poor production performance post recharging can be attributed to damage caused to the
conductivity of existing parent well fractures and only a minor increase in reservoir pressure in
the vicinity of the parent well, which is insufficient in reducing well interference.
Sequenced Fracturing technique based a novel diversion blend of degradable fibers and multi-
size particles can increase multi-well pad production by 14%.

Use of the novel diversion blend aids in improving perforation efficiency and thereby enables
access to previously undrained sections of the reservoir.
Extending stage length from 200 ft. to 350 ft. can also lead to significant savings in the
completions cost for the child well.

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