Results of hydraulic fracturing design improvements and changes in execution strategies for unconventional tight gas targets in the Cooper Basin, Australia
Raymond JohnsonA School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia.
B Real Energy Corporation Limited, Level 3, 32 Walker Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: r.johnsonjr@uq.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 59(1) 244-259 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18185
Submitted: 6 December 2018 Accepted: 22 February 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
Tight gas stimulations in the Cooper Basin have been challenged by strike–slip to reverse stress regimes, adversely affecting the hydraulic fracturing treatment. These stress conditions increase borehole breakout and affect log and cement quality, create more tortuous pathways and near-wellbore pressure loss, and reduce fracture containment. These factors result in stimulation of lower permeability, low modulus intervals (e.g. carbonaceous shales and interbedded coals) versus targeted tight gas sands. In the Windorah Trough of the Cooper Basin, several steps have been employed in an ongoing experiment to improve hydraulic fracturing results. First, the wellbore was deviated in the maximum horizontal stress direction and perforations shot 0 to 180° phased to better align the resulting hydraulic fractures. Next, existing drilling and logging-while-drilling data were used to train a machine learning model to improve reservoir characterisation in sections with missing or poor log data. Finally, diagnostic fracture injection tests in non-pay and pay sections were targeted to specifically inform the machine learning model and better constrain permeability and stress profiles. It is envisaged that the improved well and perforation alignment and better targeting of intervals for the fracturing treatment will result in lowered tortuosity, better fracture containment, and higher concentrations of localised proppant, thereby improving conductivity and targeting of desired intervals. The authors report the process and results of their experimentation, and the results relative to the offsetting vertical well where a typical five-stage treatment was employed.
Keywords: completion optimisation, machine learning, strike–slip stress regime, synthetic logs.
Raymond (Ray) L. Johnson, Jr is presently Professor of Well Engineering and Production Technology at the University of Queensland, School of Chemical Engineering, and serves as Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide. He has a PhD in Mining Engineering, an MSc in Petroleum Engineering, a Graduate Diploma in Information Technology, and a BA in Chemistry. Ray has been active in the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), past chair of the SPE Queensland Section, 2013 and 2015 co-Chair of the SPE Unconventional Reservoir Conference and Exhibition Asia Pacific, and Technical Award Recipient of SPE Regional Awards in 2011 and 2017. He has been actively involved as an author and researcher in the areas of reservoir geomechanics, hydraulic fracture design execution and evaluation, and unconventional resource development. |
Ruizhi Zhong is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland. His research interests include drilling engineering, machine learning, hydraulic fracturing, and geomechanics. His recent work involves the application of machine learning for drilling applications. He holds a PhD in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa and an MSc degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from West Virginia University. He is a member of SPE. |
Mr Lan Nguyen is the co-founder and Chairman of Real Energy Corporation Ltd. He holds a BSc (Mining Engineer-Geologist) degree majoring in petroleum exploration from the Institute of Oil and Chemistry, Baku, Azerbaijan, and a MSc in Petroleum Geology from the University of New England, Australia. He is currently a member of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA), the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the SPE. Mr Nguyen is credited with the discovery and development of many oil and gas fields in the Surat-Bowen Basins through his innovative introduction of various exploration, drilling, and completion technologies to Queensland and Australia. |
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