Frac-and-Pack Completion

  • Davorin Matanović
  • Marin Čikeš
  • Bojan Moslavac
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Springer Environmental Science and Engineering book series (SPRINGERENVIRON)

Abstract

A relatively short, highly conductive fracture created in a reservoir of moderate to high permeability will breach near-wellbore damage, reduce the drawdown and near-wellbore flow velocity and stresses, and increase effective wellbore radius. Fracturing treatments of this type have two stages: fracture created, terminated by tip-screenout, and fracture inflation and packing. Such a two-stage treatment is the basis of a number of well-completion methods, collectively known as frac-and-pack. This technique has been successfully applied, with a range of fracture sizes, to stimulate wells in various reservoirs worldwide.

This chapter discusses the criteria for selecting wells to be frac-and-packed. It is shown how a systematic study of the inflow performance can be used to assess the potential of frac-and-packed wells, to identify the controlling factors, and to optimize design parameters. It is also shown that fracture conductivity is often the key to successful treatment. This conductivity depends largely on proppant size; formation permeability damage around the created fracture has less effect. Appropriate allowance needs to be made for flow restrictions caused by the presence of the perforations, partial penetration, and non-Darcy effects.

The full potential of this completion method can be achieved only if the design is tailored to the individual well. This demands high-quality input data, which can be obtained only from a calibration test.

Keywords

Hydraulic Fracture Fracture Length Fracture Width Fracture Conductivity Skin Factor 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Nomenclature

AL

Leakoff area, m2

Ao

Fracture area at TSO, m2

APC

Average areal proppant concentration, kg/m2

B

Formation volume factor, m3/m3

CfD

Dimensionless fracture conductivity

CL

Fluid loss coefficient, m/s1/2

c

Proppant concentration, kg/m3

cl

Proppant concentration in liquid, kg/m3

cm

Average proppant concentration loading, kg/m3

cs

Proppant concentration in slurry, kg/m3

ct

Total compressibility, Pa−1

dp

Perforation tunnel diameter, m

h

Reservoir net thickness, m

J

Productivity index, m3/(s × Pa)

k

Reservoir permeability, m2

kck

Choked or damaged fracture permeability, m2

kf

Fracture permeability, m2

kfl

Permeability of damaged region, m2

kp

Perforation tunnel permeability, m2

Lp

Perforation tunnel length, m

Mfip

Total proppant mass, kg

Mtso

Total proppant mass at TSO, kg

N

Number of perforations

n

Number of moles

np

Number of perforations per unit length, m−1

p

Reservoir pressure, Pa

pD

Dimensionless pressure

pe

Reservoir pressure at outer boundary, Pa

pi

Initial reservoir pressure, Pa

psc

Standard conditions pressure, Pa

pwf

Bottomhole flowing pressure, Pa

q

Flow rate, m3/s

qi

Pump rate, m3/s

ql

Fluid leakoff rate, m3/s

R

Universal gas constant, J/(K × mol)

r

Radius, m

re

Reservoir radius, m

rD

Dimensionless radius

rs

Near wellbore damage radius, m

rw

Wellbore radius, m

rw′

Effective wellbore radius, m

rwD′

Dimensionless effective wellbore radius

SL

Spurt-loss coefficient, m

s

Skin factor

sf

Fracture skin factor

spf

Perforation flow skin factor

sck

Choked fracture skin factor

sfl

Fluid leakoff skin factor

spp

Partial penetration skin factor

so

Other possible skin factors

T

Absolute temperature, K

Tsc

Standard conditions temperature, K

tD

Dimensionless time

ti

Pumping time, s

to

Total time to TSO, s

V

Volume, m3

Vci

Clean fluid volume, m3

VF

Total (two-wing) fluid volume, m3

Vf

Total fracture volume, m3

Vi

Slurry volume, m3

VL

Leakoff volume, m3

wck

Choked or damaged fracture width, m

wf

Fracture width, m

xck

Choked or damaged fracture half-length, m

xf

Propped fracture half-length, m

yfl

Depth of damaged region, m

Z

Real gas deviation factor

Δp

Pressure gradient, Pa

Δppf

Perforation pressure drop, Pa

Δp(to)

Net pressure at TSO, Pa

μ

Fluid viscosity, Pa⋅s

ρp

Proppant particle density, kg/m3

ρp′

Proppant bulk density, kg/m3

φ

Reservoir porosity, fraction

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Davorin Matanović
    • 1
  • Marin Čikeš
    • 1
  • Bojan Moslavac
    • 1
  1. 1.Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering Petroleum Engineering DepartmentUniversity of ZagrebZagrebCroatia

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