A path to better oil and gas shale production

With an active wellbore project, it is crucial that you are aware of the amount of water, oil, and gas that you come into contact with. The technology to confirm whether a wellbore is open to flow is not expensive, and it can identify and quantify stage flow contribution in each phase. In turn, this gives a drainage area connectivity measurement by adding a small amount of chemical tracers in the stimulation fluid of each stage.

The correlation between zonal productivity and the area of the well requires advanced technology to observe. Using this knowledge, future well development plans can be adjusted with confidence to ensure that any changes made will result in enhanced ultimate hydrocarbon recovery.

Technology can also help to find the optimum area to stimulate a well and to drill. These include seismic, micro-seismic, core, and multiple specialist log data sets. Historically, it has been difficult to place faith in surveillance data to vary future drilling or stimulation activities. At best, there was no confirmation that recovery would improve if the data was used to change the program design. Or worse still, one data set was inconsistent with another, leaving the operator unsure which to believe. Tracerco technology offers a method to prove the accuracy of these measurements, providing operators with confidence when planning future well and field development.

Another commonly used technology on wellbore projects is gamma ray maps. Red on the map means that the drill is below the target area and blue means that the drill is in the middle stage. These GR observations support geological expectations. Red also signals that cumulative gas is being produced in the wellbore drilling area and blue signals that water is flowing. When organisations drill outside of zone low (toe stages), it commonly results in reduced gas production and increased water production. Drilling out of zone high (middle stages) was not detrimental. These types of stages show effective hydrocarbon production without suffering from increased water. Armed with this knowledge and by incorporating real time GR monitoring during drilling, operators can become better positioned to efficiently complete future wells in the field and remain in the more productive rock.

Hydrocarbon is commonly encountered when a well is stimulated above a parent well. Also note the increased production from stages in the centre section of the horizontals that was believed to result from accessing rock, not previously produced by the parent well.

Using a frac tracer tool helps to keep track of different stages throughout a wellbore project. Using this knowledge, the operator can evaluate drilling, stimulation and production decisions, and extract the full benefit of pre-completion seismic and geophysical diagnostics (seismic, log, micro seismic, landing zone, etc.) to ensure enhanced ultimate hydrocarbon recovery.

Click here for a more detailed report on oil and gas shale production — including gamma ray graphs from Tracerco, specialists in waterflood and injection gas flow monitoring.

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