MATRIX ACIDIZING - WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES

LEARNING OUTCOMES

 At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

Understand the fundamental of matrix acidizing
treatment Differentiate acid fracturing and matrix
acidizing

LECTURE CONTENTS

 Matrix Acidizing Treatments

 Carbonate Acid Fracturing

MATRIX ACIDIZING TREATMENT

Matrix acidizing is a near-wellbore treatment, with all of the

acid reacting within about a foot of the wellbore in sandstone
formations, and within a few to perhaps as much as 10 ft of
the wellbore in carbonates.
Carbonate Acid Fracturing

MATRIX ACIDIZING - PART 2

At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:

 Understand basic acid chemistry

 Use of dissolving power concept to estimate the
amount of acid required to remove damage around a
wellbore

LECTURE CONTENTS

 Dissolving Power Concept

 Acid Chemistry
 effects of dissolved reaction products (CaCl2 and
CO2).

Acid Velocity

 Increased velocity increases live acid penetration.

Depends on injection rate, geometry of fracture
/channels, etc.

Formation Composition

 Acid spends very rapidly in highly reactive (>95%)

carbonates.
 Acid spending time can be much slower in formations
ACID REACTION RATE with lower HCl reactivity (65% - 85%).
Acid reaction rate is important, in which, together with  The reaction rate of acid in limestone is about twice
formation characteristics, it determines the acid type and that in dolomites (at lower temperatures).
volume required.  Formation physical composition is key to acid
response.
Acid reaction rate is governed by
Surface-Area-to-Volume Ratio
 Temperature
 Pressure The spending rate of acid is proportional to the surface area
 Acid type of rock that comes in contact with a given volume of acid.
 Acid concentration In matrix acidizing, the ratio of surface area to acid volume is
 Acid velocity very high, and acid spends rapidly. Hence, very difficult to
 Reaction products achieve deeper penetration.
 Formation composition
In natural fractures, the ratio of surface area to acid volume
 Surface-area-to-volume ratio
is much less, and deeper treatment is possible.

In fracture acidizing, the ratio of rock surface area to acid

ACID REACTION RATE volume is even lower. Very deep stimulation in fracturing
applications is therefore possible.
Temperature - Acid reaction rate increases directly with
temperature. At about 150oF, the reaction rate of HCl and
limestone is about twice that of 80oF.

Pressure - Pressure greater than 500 psi has little effect on

reaction rates. Below 500 psi, increased pressure accelerates
reaction rate.

Acid Type

Acid strength varies with acid type. Acid strength is defined

by ionization strength, or the degree to which acid ionizes to
hydrogen ion (H+), the reactive species with carbonate
minerals.

HCl is the strongest acid, as it nearly completely dissociated

to H+, and Cl- , in water.

Acetic and formic acids are weakly ionizing, as they do not

completely dissociate to H+ and the corresponding anion in
water.

Acid Concentration

 Rate increases with acid concentration up to 20% wt

HCl, after which the rate decreases due to retarding
DISSOLVING POWER CONCEPT

 More convenient way to express reaction

stoichiometry.
 Represent the amount of mineral consumed by a
given amount of acid on mass or volume basis.
 Complex reaction.

WELL STIMULATION TECHNIQUES
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:
 Understand sandstone matrix acidizing treatment
design process
 Understand the selection of the acids for matrix
acidizing treatment
 Describe the various acid placement techniques
LECTURE CONTENTS
 Sandstone Matrix Acidizing Treatment Design Process
 The Selection of The Acids for Matrix Acidizing
Treatment
 Various Acid Placement Techniques
SANDSTONE MATRIX ACIDIZING DESIGN
 Matrix acidizing is used primarily in sandstone formations
to dissolve unwanted materials that have invaded the rock
pores during drilling, cementing and completions operations
Due to high friction pressure, matrix acidizing must be
conducted at low injection rate so that the acids penetrates
into the pore spaces of the rock without fracturing the
formation.
INTRODUCTION
Analysis of the cause(s) of impaired well performance.
Well skin effect measurement.
Well history should be studied to determine whether the
damage is amenable to removal with acid.
Acidizing treatment design can begin.
 Selection of the type and concentration of acid to be
used.
 Determine the volume of preflush, HF/HCl mixture,
and postflush required, and desired injection rate.
 Acid placement.
 Additives to be added.
ACID SELECTION
Based primarily on field experience.
Standard treatment : 15 wt% HCl pre-flush followed with 3
wt% HF + 12 wt% HCl mixture (mud acid).
Recent trend has been toward the use of lower-strength HF
solutions to:
 Reduce damaging precipitates.
  Reduce risk of unconsolidation of formation around  throughput in pore volumes.
wellbore.  Should only be used as guideline for field treatment.

SANDSTONE MATRIX ACIDIZING DESIGN

MIXTURE OF HF & HCL (MUD ACID)

Due to insolubility of some fluorite salts, mud acid should :

 Never be diluted with seawater

 Never be used to acidize carbonate formation
 Always be used with preflush of HCl
 Always be used with postflush with HCl or NH4Cl Permeability initially decrease, reaches a minimum, then
increases.

Smith et al (1965) reasoning:

 Initial permeability decrease due to partial

disintegration of the sandstone matrix, and the
downstream migration of fine that plug flow
channels. Continual exposure to acid resulting in
dissolution of fines.
 Subsequent increase in permeability due to clearing
of pore channels plugged by fines and the
enlargement of other pore channels by the acid.
ACID SELECTION

Laboratory Test to select Optimal Acid

 Particularly useful when many wells will be treated in

the same formation.
 Flow acid through a small core and monitor
permeability response from pressure drop.
 Compare “Acid Response Curve” – a plot of the
permeability of the core as a function of acid

Permeability initially decrease, reaches a minimum, then
increases.
Shaughnessy & Kunze (1980) reasoning:
Permeability damage to Berea cores will also result if HCl is
used without HF.
The observed reduction in permeability is not due to fines
migration but is a result of the CO2 produced by the reaction
of acid with the carbonates present in Berea appearing as a
separate CO2 – rich phase within the pore spaces.
If this is the case, the rock is not at all damaged, but the
relative permeability to acid is simply decreased by the
presence of the additional fluid phase.
This phase will, however, be readily removed when the well
is put on production since CO2 has a substantial solubility in
both oil and water.
1. PREFLUSH
 Important - to remove formation materials that
would react to a significant extent with HCl.
 Usually 5 – 15 wt% of HCl, containing corrosion
inhibitors and other additives (as required).
 Displace connate water from the near-wellbore
region, minimizing direct contact between sodium
and potassium ions in the formation brine and the HF
or fluosilicate reaction products.
 Reduce the possible redamaging of the formation by
precipitation of insoluble sodium or potassium
fluorides or fluosilicates.
 Reduce reaction between HF & CaCO3 , avoid waste
of more expensive HF, prevents precipitation of
calcium fluoride (CaF2 ).
 Serves to precool formation.
P/s : use dissolving power concept to estimate the volume of
preflush needed.
2. ACID MIXTURE HF
 HCl mixture (usually 3 wt% HF and 12 wt% HCl).
 HF reacts with clays, sand, drilling mud or cement to
improve permeability near the wellbore.
 HCl will not react with these materials but is needed
to keep the pH low, reducing the precipitation of HF
reaction products.
3. POSTFLUSH
 To isolate reacted HF from brine that may be used to
flush the tubing.
 To displace spent acid into the formation.
 To restore water wettability of the formation.
 Moves precipitates farther from wellbore, so the
precipitations that may form will be less damaging.
 Minimum volume : tubing volume plus twice the
volume of wellbore below the tubing (due to gravity
segregation effects as mentioned by Hong and
Millhone (1977).
Types :
 Oil Wells – diesel oil or 15 wt% HCl
 Water Injection Wells – HCl
 Gas Wells – acid or gas (nitrogen or natural gas
ACID PLACEMENT TECHNIQUES
Acid will usually follow the path of least resistance – lesser
damaged intervals.
Allowing acid to choose its own path may not achieve the
design coverage.
Therefore, acid placement or diversion is to ensure uniform
distribution of acid across the treatment intervals. 2 main
categories :
 Mechanical
 Chemical
MECHANICAL ACID PLACEMENT
Isolate individual zones mechanically and treat all zones
successively.
Accomplished with (as described by McLeod) :
 Opposed cup packer (Perforation wash tool)
 Combination of a squeeze packer and a retrievable
bridge plug
  Inflatable straddle packers Fine particles that form a relatively low-permeability filter
cake on formation face. The pressure drop through this filter
Requires the removal of tubulars from well, adding significant
cake increases the flow resistance, diverting the acid to other
cost to treatment. However, the cost may often be justified
parts of the formation where less diverting agent has been
by the improved placement, particularly in horizontal well.
deposited.
Best method for obtaining uniform placement.
Added to acid continuously or in batches between acid
stages.

Must form a low-permeability filter cake that is easily

removed by choosing agents that are :

 Small particles with wide ranges of sizes

 Soluble in oil, gas or water

Creates temporary plug in high permeability zones so that the

treatment fluids are diverted to the low permeability zone.

BALL SEALERS

 Rubber-coated balls that are designed to seat in the

perforations in the casing, thereby diverting injected
fluid to other perforations.
 Added to injected acid in stages, so that after a
number of perforations have received acid, they are
blocked, diverting acid to other stages.
 Usually denser than fluid, so that after treatment, the
ball sealers will fall into the rathole.
 Erbstoesser (1980) showed that ball sealers that are LEARNING OUTCOMES
slightly buoyant in the carrying fluid seat more
 At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:
efficiently than dense ball sealers, but require ball
 Understand carbonate matrix acidizing treatment
trap to be added to flow line as it will be produced
process
back at surface after treatment
 General guideline to use twice as many ball sealers as LECTURE CONTENTS
perforations & 50% excess for buoyant sealers.
 Carbonate Matrix Acidizing Treatment Process
 Their efficiency depends on the relative density
between the balls and the injection rate. CARBONATE MATRIX ACIDIZING
 The higher the rate, the better ball sealers will work,
i.e. Seating efficiency increases as injection rate
increases.
 Not recommended for low rates.
 Not effective in deviated or horizontal wells.

CARBONATE FORMATION STIMULATION

Physically and chemically different from sandstone

CHEMICAL ACID PLACEMENT – PARTICULATE DIVERTING  Very fine grains exhibiting vugular or fracture
AGENTS porosity compared to sandstone (intergranular
porosity)
  React much faster with HCl than sandstones
 Often, a few large channels, called wormholes, are
created, caused by the nonuniform dissolution of
limestone by HCl in a linear core flood.
Propagation of wormholes through the damaged zone yields
negative skin.
Only a small fraction of the matrix must be dissolved.

Carbonates normally

 Massive deposits of chalk, limestone or dolomite

 Smaller particles than sand grains
 Undergo large porosity & permeability reduction
(burial & diagenesis)
 Also include Fe, clays, Si materials

CARBONATE MATRIX ACIDIZING

MECHANISM OF DISSOLUTION

Surface reaction rates are relatively high, hence mass transfer

limits reaction, leading to highly nonuniform dissolution
patterns

A few large channels called wormholes form

Structure of wormholes depends on many factors including:

 Flow geometry
 Injection rate
 Reaction kinetics
 Mass transfer rates

Carbonate matric acidizing is all about wormholes : acid-

created channels that are orders of magnitude larger than
matrix pores.

CARBONATE DISSOLUTION PATTERN

 At A, high Damkohler number, acid is consumed at

the inlet flow face of the core, permeability increase
is negligible, acidizing is inefficient.
 At B, low Damkohler number, acid can penetrate into
the porous matrix and enlarge flow channels, a
In matrix acidizing, wormholes are good. wormhole is formed. The wormholes increase the
 permeability significantly making the acidizing
efficient.
1. ACID TYPE AND CONCENTRATION
HCl acid is the most common acid used in carbonate matrix
acidizing.
Weak acids are suggested for perforation cleanup and
perforating fluid, but otherwise, strong solutions of HCl are
recommended.
All models of wormhole propagation predict deeper
penetration for higher acid concentrations, so high
concentration of HCl is preferable.
In carbonates, there are no precipitation reactions to limit
the acid concentrations used, as in the case in sandstones.
2. ACID VOLUME AND INJECTION RATE
 Determine the acid volume and injection rate
schedule for carbonate acidizing, similar to the
approach used in sandstone acidizing.
 Determine the maximum volume needed based on a
model of the acidizing process and then adjusting the
injection rate and volume actually pumped based on
real-time monitoring of the treatment.
 The acid volume is calculated with a model of
wormhole propagation (Daccord’s model or the
volumetric model) for a desired penetration of
wormholes.
 Current models of wormhole propagation predict
that wormhole velocity increases with injection rate
to the power of ½ to 1.
 Thus, to propagate wormholes at a given distance
most rapidly, the maximum injection rate is
preferable.
 In general, sufficient acid volumes are available, so
that injection at the maximum rate is recommended
for limestone formations.
 Therefore, by increasing the reaction rate, acid will
penetrate farther into the formation.
3. MONITORING THE ACIDIZING PROCESS
Injection rate and injection pressure should be closely
monitored, similar to the approach as in the case in
sandstones acidizing treatment.
Because the wormholes created in carbonates are such large
channels, it is generally assumed that the pressure drop
through the wormholed region is negligible, so that the effect
of the wormholes on the well skin effect is the same as
enlarging the wellbore.
The skin evolution in a carbonate matrix acidizing treatment
can be predicted with the models of wormhole propagation.
4. FLUID DIVERSION Could other inflow improving measures (e.g. re-perforation)
be a more economical approach to increase well production?
 Adequate placement of acid into all zones to be
stimulated is as important in acidizing carbonates as 3. Is the stimulation feasible?
it is in sandstones. The same fluid placement
The final stage of stimulation candidate selection is to
techniques are applicable.
evaluate the practical aspects of the stimulation.
 One exception is in carbonate formations that are
vugular or contain large natural fractures. e.g. What is the mechanical condition of the well?
 In these types of formations, larger particle diverting
Are there any logistical, scheduling, or other overriding
agents are needed.
considerations, which prevent the well being taken out of
 For a vuggy or fractured carbonate, diverting agents
production?
such as Unibeads or benzoic acid flakes are
recommended. TREATMENT TIMING
LEARNING OUTCOMES To correct formation permeability impairment caused by
drilling mud :
 Identify potential hazards in acidizing treatments
 Understand well stimulation economics  Immediately after drilling/completion
 Describe what is a good matrix acidizing candidate
Routine field production surveillance, well produced less than
LECTURE CONTENTS surrounding wells with comparable reservoir
quality/permeability-thickness
 Well Stimulation
 Economics Potential Hazards in Acidizing Treatments  After routine surveillance
 Matrix Acidizing Candidate Selection
THE STIMULATION CYCLE
MATRIX ACIDIZING CANDIDATE SELECTION

The criteria (stated in the Table) determine whether a well

has minimum of :

 Remaining reserve to justify well stimulation

 Well inflow productivity WELL STIMULATION ECONOMICS
 Capacity in facilities to process extra fluid production

1. Does the well show sand production? Are sand control

measures in place?

Matrix stimulation treatments of gravel packed completions

have historically shown a lower success rate than when
perforated completions are treated.

2. Is the cause of formation damage known (or at least

suspected)?

Identification of the cause of the formation damage greatly

increases the chance of matrix treatment success since a
treatment fluid which efficiently removes that specific form
WELL STIMULATION ECONOMICS
of formation damage can be selected.
Line with steeper slope corresponds to a greater, annual, net
HC production decline rate.
Extra oil reserves created by producing the well above the
economic limit for a longer period of time.
The expected, net HC production gain needs to be estimated
first if :
A simpler calculation method.  The most profitable
candidate is the stimulation treatment yielding the most
rapid payback
Most companies require a very high rate of return from this
type of well treatment, leading to pay back times of between
6 and 12 months.

 The well’s skin value is known or Use Hawkins

formula if the extent and depth of formation damage
are known (or guesstimated).
 Experience with comparable stimulations in the same
field.

Field experience has shown that :

Gain in production will normally be followed by an increased

production decline rate.

In time, well’s production rate will often revert to its

predicted, original value or even below this extrapolated
value. The latter occurs if the well’s reserves have undergone
an accelerated depletion resulting from the increased well
production following the well stimulation.
Estimate of the length of time, during which the stimulated
well stimulation will increase in production is also required,
consider :
 The well inflow i.e. whether the well has sufficient
inflow capacity and remaining reserves
 The well (tubing) outflow capacity
 Whether the production facilities have sufficient
capacity to process the extra fluid volumes.
Compare the increased revenue with cost of stimulation
which include the :
Cost of mobilization, equipment rental (pumps, tanks etc.)
and personnel
Cost of returning the well to production e.g. initiate
production by lifting with nitrogen gas.
Cost of consumables e.g. chemicals etc. The stimulation
treatment :
Leaks and handling of acid.
 Leaks on surface endanger service personnel. Contact
with acids can cause severe burns and should be
avoided
 Subsurface leaks corrode tubing & casing
Most additives used in acid are toxic to varying degree.
Chemicals contacting the skin should be removed
immediately by washing with soap and water.
Potential Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) may be produced when
acid react with sulfide scale
 H2S smells like rotten eggs at low concentrations
 Effects depends on concentrations and duration of
exposure Immediate death when concentrations are
over 500-1000 ppm
Arsenic Inhibitor (poisonous if swallowed)
 Arsenic contact with aluminium or magnesium may
produce arsine gas
 Arsine gas - an inhalation hazard, very deadly
 Generally do not use Arsenic inhibitors due to their
toxicity and environmental protection problems
Environment Protection

That yields the highest (discounted) rate of return, and  Proper handling & disposal of acid and spent acid
products
That is operationally feasible Should be carried out first if
 Follow regulatory guidelines
several stimulation candidate wells have been identified.

Payback Time

The production time required for the increased, net HC

production to pay back the costs of the stimulation
treatment.
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:
 Identify the hydraulic fracture treatment selection
guidelines
 Analyse the fracture stimulated well inflow
performance
 Understand the fundamental of fracturing
LECTURE CONTENTS
 Fundamental of Fracturing
 The Hydraulic Fracture Treatment Selection
Guidelines
 The Fracture Stimulated Well Inflow Performance
FUNDAMENTAL OF FRACTURING
Propped Hydraulic Fracturing consists of pumping a viscous
fluid at a sufficiently high pressure into the completion
interval so that a two winged, hydraulic fracture is formed.
This fracture is then filled with a high conductivity, proppant
which holds the fracture open (maintains a high conductivity
path to the wellbore) after the treatment is finished.
The propped fracture can have a width between 5 mm and
35 mm and a length of 100 m or more
An alternative is to pump acid at a wellbore pressure greater
than the fracture propagation pressure for a inhomogeneous
carbonate formation.
Both types of fracturing treatments create highly conductive
paths from deep in the reservoir to the wellbore.
The radial well inflow equation shows that the well
production rate (Q) can be increased by :
Increasing the formation flow capacity (k.h) {the fracture may
increase the effective formation height (h) or connect with a
formation zone with a higher permeability (k)}
Bypassing flow effects that increase the skin, S (near wellbore
formation damage)
Increasing the wellbore radius (𝑟𝑤) to an effective wellbore
radius (𝑟𝑤 ′ ), which is itself is a function of the conductive
fracture length, 𝐿𝑓
Hydraulic Fracturing is beneficial in following three cases :
1. If the reservoir is composed of a low-permeability,
homogeneous rock, fracturing is similar in effect to increasing
the size of the hole. (i.e., fluid formerly flowed through the
low-permeability rock becomes able to move into the high
capacity fracture at some distance from the well.)
2. Fracturing will eliminate formation damage by bypassing it.
3. Fracture radiating from the well bore act as a gathering
lines connecting permeable and porous systems that are
otherwise isolated from the well by impermeable barriers.
TREATMENT SELECTION GUIDELINES
Hydraulic fracture stimulation is required for the economic
development of low permeability reservoirs.
This is because a highly conductive fracture results in a
negative skin with the wellbore flowing pressure, (P1) having
been increased, at a given flow rate, compared to an
unimpaired (P2) or impaired (P3) flowing pressure.
 FRACTURE STIMULATED WELL INFLOW PERFORMANCE

The fracture conductivity is increased by:

 An increased fracture width (w),

 An increased proppant permeability (large, more
spherical, proppant grains have a higher
permeability)
 Minimising the permeability damage to the proppant
pack from the fracturing fluid.
Propped hydraulic fracture well stimulation should only be
considered when the:

 Well is connected to adequate produce able

reserves;
 Reservoir pressure is high enough to maintain flow
when producing these reserves (or it is economically
justifiable to install artificial lift);
 Production system can process the extra production.

TREATMENT SELECTION GUIDELINES

 These minimum criteria are equivalent to those used

for matrix treatments and are summarized in the
table. There is, however, one extra and unique
requirement for propped hydraulic fracturing:
 Professional, experienced personnel are available for
treatment design, execution and supervision along
together with high quality pumping, mixing and
blending equipment
 The last requirement arises because a propped
hydraulic fracturing treatment is more complex
compared to matrix or acid fracturing treatments.
The above correlations and equations can be used to quantify
the relationship between the increased production (FOI) as a
function of the fracture length ( 𝐿𝑓 ), formation permeability
(k) and the fracture conductivity (𝑘𝑓 ∗ 𝑤). The figure shows
that for wells in low permeability (0.1 mD) formations :

High values of the FOI are possible;

FOI is related to fracture half length, while the fracture

conductivity has a limited effect, providing its value is greater
than a certain minimum.

The (low) formation permeability is controlling the well

inflow and increased fracture conductivity does not improve
well inflow performance. An increase in the formation
permeability to 10 mD results in:
  A fracture with a low conductivity (100 mD.ft) has he split will be in the direction of least resistance, i.e. will
essentially no effect on the well production; propagate most easily in the direction perpendicular to the
 Increasing the fracture conductivity by a factor of 10 minimum in-situ stress.
(to 1,000 mD.ft) increases the well production (or
Thus, in tectonically relaxed environments, we can assume
FOI), but the FOI is still independent of fracture
that a hydraulic fracture will have a vertical orientation and
Figure 10 : Relationship between FOI and length for
will propagate in the direction of the intermediate (or
values greater than 100 ft;
maximum horizontal) of the in-situ stress i.e. at right angles
A further increase to 10,000 mD.ft is required before the to the minimum in-situ stress.
inflow performance becomes sensitive to created fracture
length i.e. the fracture conductivity is no longer the only
limiting factor in well inflow performance.

Inflow from the formation into the fracture is no longer the

controlling factor for this higher permeability reservoir.

The above considerations will control the hydraulic fracture

treatment design process since long and highly conductive
fractures are more difficult to make and have a greater cost.

LECTURE CONTENTS

 In-situ Stress
 Effective Stress
 Fracture Initiation and Perforation
 Programme Data Gathering

IN-SITU STRESS

It is known that there are three principle earth stresses

orientated to one another.
 𝜎1 is the vertical stress
 𝜎2 is the minimum horizontal stress
 𝜎3 is the maximum horizontal stress
The vertical stress (𝜎𝑥) can be measured, or assumed, with
reasonable accuracy. The important rock property for
predicting the other two stresses from the vertical stress is
called Poisson’s Ratio (v), the ratio between Lateral Strain
(𝜀𝑦) and the Longitudinal Strain (𝜀𝑥)

The negative sign is included because (convention) states

that expansion should be treated as negative and we wish
Poisson’ Ratio to be a positive number

Below about 500m, in a relaxed tectonic environment, the

vertical stress is normally the greatest

𝝈𝑽 > 𝝈𝑯 > 𝝈𝒉

The overburden stress can be computed with density log

data. Normally, the value for overburden stress is
approximately 1 psi/ft of depth, though lower values are
encountered in shallow, particularly offshore environments
subject to rapid deposition.

Propagation of a hydraulic fracture, requires the actual

splitting apart of the fabric of the formation. T
 Figure 3 explains how subjecting a rock sample to a vertical
(the overburden) stress results in it shortening in the vertical
direction and expansion in the horizontal direction.
A similar effect occurs in a reservoir rock deposited in a
sedimentary basin.
The magnitude of the vertical stress at any depth is related to
the weight of the overlying rock mass. This can often be
estimated by integrating the density log from the depth
under study to the surface (a default value of 1.0 – 1.1 psi/ft
can be used if this log is not available).
EFFECTIVE STRESS
The pore fluids present within the rock matrix will support a
proportion of the total applied stress. This means that
effective stress (s’) carried by the rock matrix grains is smaller
than the total stress. This was quantified by Terzaghi as: 𝝈 , =
𝝈 − 𝑷 Where 𝜎 is the total stress, P is the pore pressure, and
𝜎 , is the effective stress.
It was later recognized by Handin that the intergrain
cementation does not allow the pore pressure to completely
counteract the applied load. A correction factor, the pore-
elastic constant, 𝛼, was introduced: 𝝈 , = 𝝈𝜶 – 𝑷
From these equations, it is concluded that the values of the
stresses which control fracture propagation can change as
the reservoir pressure depletes during the life of a petroleum
reservoir. Hence the stress profile measured early in a field’s
lifetime may become invalid as the field matures.
For example, a hydraulic fracture created later in the life of a
field will tend to be more confined to the pay zone than a
similar treatment carried out early in field life. This occurs
because the pay zone reservoir pressure will have decreased
due to oil or gas production, while the pressure and hence
the in-situ stress in the bounding shale will be unchanged.
FRACTURE INITIATION AND PERFORATION PROGRAMME
As discussed, the induced hydraulic fracture propagates at
right angles to the minimum in-situ stress.
From a conceptual point of view, it can be seen that the:
Fracture Initiation Pressure (FIP)
 The pressure needed to start the fracture
propagating
Fracture Propagation Pressure (FPP)
 Pressure needed to continue fracture propagation =
minimum rock in-situ stress + fracture toughness :
Since the propagating fracture has to overcome the forces
that are preventing further splitting of the rock, the minimum
rock in-situ stress and its fracture toughness are included in
the calculation of FPP.
The Fracture Initiation Pressure (FIP) i.e. the pressure needed
to start the fracture propagating from the perforation will
normally be greater than the FPP.
This is because fracture initiation requires additional energy
to overcome the tensile stresses present around the
borehole plus any extra pressure required to overcome the
fact that the perforation is not orientated in the preferred
direction for fracture propagation. Inefficient perforating can
increase the FIP.
This illustrates how it is unlikely that inline (O o phasing)
perforations will be aligned with this preferred direction of
fracture propagation (In the case illustrated the perforation is
orientated at right angles to the preferred fracture criteria).
Field experience indicates that the FIP can be minimized by
perforating the well with 60 o phasing – the maximum
difference between the perforation and induced fracture
orientation will now be reduced to 30.
Figure shows how the fracture has to initiate from the
perforation and then travel around the well until it achieves
the preferred orientation, after which it will propagate away
from the well. The width of the induced fracture is related to
the difference between the fluid pressure in the fracture and
the in-situ stress.
The fracture will be much narrower at the point of initiation
since the maximum rather than the minimum, horizontal
stress is acting on the fracture. This area of restricted width
may not be wide enough to allow the passage of proppant
grains during the later stages of the fracturing treatment –
resulting in a premature screen out
DATA GATHERING
Prior to carrying out the hydraulic fracturing treatment it is
advisable to carry out a smaller data gathering called
minifrac, to measure the formation and fluid properties.
Fluid is pumped at a constant rate and small volume; e.g. : 2
barrel for the required time and the treatment pressure
measured.
Proppant is not used.
The bottom hole pressure begins to rise until FIP, after which
it drops rapidly to FPP.
The pumps are stopped when the desired fluid volume has
been pumped and fracture propagation ceases.
This pressure drops rapidly to ISIP.
The fracture is still open at the ISIP. Leak off continues,
pressure drops until FCP. The FCP is recognized as a change in
slope in the pressure decay curve.
Fluid is leaking off into the formation from the whole fracture
surface when the fracture is open.
The fluid loss rate decreases to a low value after the fracture
closes. Due time, pressure will be equalized to reservoir
pressure.
Fracture Re-opening Pressure, FRP have lower value than FIP.
Valuable information from minifrac:
The longer the fracture takes to close after the cessation of
pumping, the lower the leak off and the greater the fracture
volume. A volume balance can be performed to quantify this
fluid loss to be used as input to fracture treatment design
programs.
Fracture height can be measured after the well is fractured: A
temperature log is run across the perforated interval before
and after the minifrac treatment. This production log will
record a (cool/lower temperature) zone across the created
fracture due to the injection of the cold fracturing fluid.