1
than that can be achieved through conventional
pumping operations.
Since the wellbore fluids will be injected into the
formation during the perforating process, it is
important that the selection of the wellbore fluids
be considered carefully so as to not induce
formation damage due to fluid incompatibilities.
The principle of the propellant stimulation is
simple: as the perforating gun is detonated, the
shaped charges penetrate through the scallops,
causing the propellant burns as a function of
pressure, temperature, and available propellant
surface area exposed with the shaped charge
providing the necessary ignition source. The
generated gas-pressure pulse is generally
sufficient to overcome in situ stresses to create
and extend short fractures from perforation
tunnels in a cased-hole completion. It is
conceptualized that all the perforations will be
broken down regardless of charge phasing;
however, at some point the only fractures that
will propagate are the perforations aligned with
the preferred stress plane. Pressure pulses
ranging from 5,000 to 30,000psi are attained
within a 1 to 10 ms time regime, followed by a
decay tail associated with expansion, cooling,
and flow into perforations and fractures. The
loading rates and peak pressures are lower than
with explosives but significantly higher than
accomplished with conventional hydraulic
fracturing. Peak pressures and burn
characteristics of propellant tools are dependent
on wellbore diameter, geometry, perforation area,
formation properties, and confining fluid
compressibility.
The standard practice, when perforating
unconsolidated formations in preparation for a
7
frac-and-pack (FP) or high rate water pack
(HRWP) completion, is to perforate with a high-
shot density, big-hole-shaped charge in an
underbalanced well condition to surge the
perforations clean. It is generally accepted that
the perforating event in itself is damaging to the
surrounding rock matrix and that underbalanced
perforating serves to back flush some of this
damaged or crushed formation material along
with any residual perforation debris from the
shaped charges. The problem with having to
complete relatively long perforated intervals in
deviated wellbores with incompetent formations
is the potential for sanding up the TCP assembly.
Therefore, to mitigate the risk for having to
perform a fishing job to retrieve the TCP
assembly, the underbalance is usually reduced
significantly or totally eliminated to perforate in a
balanced condition. Elimination of this
instantaneous surge following the perforation
event can result in the entire interval not being
treated
uniformly during the frac and pack, and thus,
less than optimum perforation efficiency can
result. Studies revealed the detrimental affects
that shaped charge perforators have on altering
the formation characteristics and the creation of
fines generated in the vicinity of the perforation
tunnel. When this occurs, some type of remedial
treatment such as underbalance surging of the
perforations, additional back-surge trips, flow
testing the interval prior to gravel packing, or
post-perforating acid wash following perforating
will be required ahead of the FP or HRWP
operation.

Principle of HEPF
The HEPF technique refers to the technology
using combined conventional scalloped
perforating gun and propellants inside the carrier.
This technique provides an effective method to
ensure that all perforations are sufficiently
broken down from the fracturing to accept either
produced or injected fluids.
In this technology, some propellants are
involved which can be defined as explosives that
deflagrate rather than detonate. The propellants
are shaped and positioned inside the scalloped
perforating carrier to combine the perforating
and stimulation processes into one step. The
perforating event is performed in either an
under-balanced or balanced condition, followed
1
immediately with the extreme over-balance or
rapid-gas pulse generated from the propellant
burn. And the gases generated will then
dynamically fractures the adjacent rock. This
high pressure gas creates enough short-term
pressure to provide dynamic fracturing without
creating enough pressure to damage or rubblize
the rock as with the use of explosives. The
pressure event has a duration of milliseconds
and has an absolute value of 2-3 times the
fracture initiation pressure of the rock. The
generated gas volume and subsequent gas
pressure produces 2 to 6 short fractures
adjacent to and emanating from each perforation.
Working Process

Any conventional deep penetrating or big hole

shaped charge can be utilized with the HEPF
assembly. The perforating gun is detonated by
conventional, electric line, or tubing conveyed
firing techniques.
When the shaped charge is detonated, the
propellants are ignited within an instant,
producing a burst of high pressure gas. The high
pressure gas enters the perforation and breaks
through any damage around the tunnel, creating
fractures. In hard rock, fractures are estimated
to extend as much as three to six feet from the
wellbore.
When the gas pressure in the wellbore
dissipates, gas in the formation is surged into
the wellbore, carrying damaging fines away from
the formation.

1

Technical Features
y HEPF has shown to be an effective method for
enhancing near wellbore conditions and
achiveing perforation breakdown in tight
sandstone reservoirs with low porosity and
permeability and allowing the zones to be
tested without the need for hydraulic fracturing.
y Two different types of energy are combined
and put in action sequentially, and fully utilizing
the residual energy of shaped charges and
explosive fuse to Fire propellant
y The field practices proved that HEPF in a
balanced scenario can offer a cost efficient
and safe method when used as a near
wellbore clean-up tool for pre-frac preparation
or high rate water packing.
y With the trend in the industry to reduce cycle
time, the elimination of the underbalance
/surge process to ensure clean perforations
and all the associated rig time in obtaining
control of the well following the surge are seen
as significant opportunities for rig-time savings.
y The HEPF technique can be safely performed
in hostile environments with wireline or tubing
conveyance.
y Propellant stimulation can be useful for
breaking down perforations in preparation for
hydraulic fracturing treatments with lower
breakdown pressures observed.
y HEPF is beneficial in adequately breaking
down all perforations which enable
stimulations to be effective in all perforated
intervals.
y The creation of fractures from the propellant
did not adversely affect the ability to
hydraulically fracture the formation.
y Plugback equipment needs to be developed to
adequately withstand the forces created by
propellants.
2
y Various sizes of HEPF guns allow greater
flexibility in job design, enhanced ability to
optimize the HEPF system to casing size
Applications
The HEPF technique was used on several
formation types; i.e., long intervals, highly
deviated, and highly laminated with extreme
permeability contrasts, that would traditionally be
deemed as high risk for proper sand placement.
HEPF techniques have application in limiting or
removing perforating damage as it is created, in
addition to other forms of drilling and completion
damage. Since the development of this method
a number of successful applications have been
identified for HEPF:
y Perforation Breakdown: Propellant stimulation
devices are routinely used for near wellbore
clean up and enhancement. One of the
primary applications is for perforation
breakdown and fracture initiation. Propellant
stimulation can be useful information where
breakdown cannot be safely achieved.
Propellant is used to initiate formation
breakdown allowing a successful fracture at
lower initiation pressures.
y Shallow Gas Near Water: Successfully
completing shallow gas wells can be a
challenge - especially in intervals with near
water. In many instances perforating alone will
not provide sufficient inflow performance as
the low reservoir pressure does not provide
adequate differential pressure and inflow
velocities to flush the near wellbore region.
Remedial efforts such as modest "skin fracs",
for near wellbore stimulation, run the risk of
connecting to water. The addition of a
propellant stimulation system during
perforating has been demonstrated to provide
sufficient stimulation energy to cleanup the
 near wellbore region while remaining in the
zone. Shallow gas wells stimulated using this
perforating technique has performed to
potential without the need for additional costly
and unpredictable stimulations.
y Heavy Oil Unconsolidated Sand: In order to
obtain production from unconsolidated heavy
oil sands, the formation sand may also be
produced to attain the highly viscous oil.
Occasionally the production in these wells
unexplainably declines. This is normally
attributed to a lack of sand mobility or bridging
of the sand grains. Propellant technology has
been successfully used to disrupt the sand
bridges and re-establish economic production
rates. In some areas this phenomena occurs
immediately at the time of perforating. HEPF
systems have been used to ensure sufficient
sand and oil inflow at the time of perforating.
y Injection Wells: The conversion of a producing
well to an injector may require clean up due to
a "one-way check-valve" type plugging in the
perforations or over time the perforations in a
mature injection well may become blocked with
scale (filtrate) debris and require clean up.
Applying a controlled dynamic pulse of high
pressure gas from a propellant tool can break
and cleanup the perforation tunnel and near
wellbore area and increase well injectivity
without the potential damaging risks inherent
with techniques such as acid washes.
Configuration
Originally propellants tools were configured as
standalone devices and run in the well after the
interval had been perforated. The objective of
the propellant stimulation was to remove near
wellbore damage, which in a number of
instances could be attributed to the perforating
process. The development of a HEPF system
3
eliminated the additional procedure as the
perforating and stimulation operation could be
undertaken simultaneously with the objective
of generating more effective perforations at
the time of perforating.
The system is conveyed in the well either on
wireline or tubing, depending on the application
or stimulation interval length. Once positioned
on depth, the propellants ignite immediately after
the detonating of the shaped charges. The
pressure wave generated by the charge exits
through the carrier and penetrates the casing,
forming a perforation tunnel in the formation.
The perforation is already formed before the
propellant begins to generate gas.
As the propellant burns, a surge of high-
pressure gas is produced that enters the newly
created perforation and breaks through the
damage around the tunnel, extending fractures
from the perforation. When gas pressure in the
well bore dissipates, gas surges back into the
well bore carrying damaging fines from the
formation.
Wireline string of HEPF
The wireline string of HEPF is almost same as
the basic wireline perforating string and it is
made up of a cable head, correlation device and
one or more guns.
The cable head serves three functions: to
connect the gun string ；to the electric
wireline；to provide a controlled weak point to
free the cable if the guns become stuck and to
provide a fishing profile.
The correlation device is normally a casing collar
locator or a gun gamma ray with a CCL.
The final conponent is the gun itself, the gun is
composed of a head to provide electrical and
mechanical connection to the CCL or positioning
device, the gun body and lower head or bottom nose.

TCP string for HEPF

The TCP string of HEPF is same as conventional TCP.

Technical Specifications of the equipment

HEPF Products and Performance:

Pressure Temp. Shot

Gun size Propellant Performance in concrete
rating rating density Charge type
(in.) type target
(Mpa) (F/1h) (spm)
Fracture Fracture width
length (m) (mm)
*3 1/2 80 400 13/16 DP36RDX L/H 1.6 4.8
3 1/2 80 400 13/16 DP36HMX L/H 1.6 4.8
4 80 400 13/16 DP41RDX L/H 2.0 5
4 80 400 13/16 DP41HMX L/H 2.0 5
4 80 400 13/16 DP44RDX L/H 2.0 5
4 80 400 13/16 DP44HMX L/H 2.0 5
*4 1/2 80 400 13/16 DP44RDX L/H 2.5 5.3
4 1/2 80 400 13/16 DP44HMX L/H 2.5 5.3
5 80 400 13/16 DP44RDX L/H 2.8 5.5
5 80 400 13/16 DP44HMX L/H 2.8 5.5

for perforation cleanup with potentially damaging

Conventional perforating and HEPF
Conventional perforating systems have been
shown to damage the formation through the
generation of a low permeability "crush" zone.
This could have a substantial impact on the
productive or injective capability of the well. The
ability of HEPF to remove or reduce tortuosity by
breaking down perforations assists hydraulic
fracturing efficiency and may eliminate the need
acid.
In many instances perforating alone will not
provide sufficient inflow performance and low
reservoir pressures do not clean up the near
wellbore region. HEPF can stimulate the interval
and remain in zone unlike other more aggressive
stimulation techniques.
The advantage of TCP with extreme
underbalance in a completion scenario is its

4
capability to perforate long intervals
simultaneously to achieve improved completion
efficiency by surging all the perforations. The
technique of using wireline-conveyed guns in
combination with propellants has shown to be an
effective technique to achieve perforation
breakdown with the absence of extreme
underbalance across the entire perforated
interval. Performing this operation without the
need to have a workover rig on location has led
to substantial cost savings to the operator
without sacrificing completion effectiveness.
However, the use of propellant-assisted
perforating does require special planning. When
working in HP/HT environments with propellants,
very high-pressure loadings will be generated
that can potentially compromise wellbore
integrity in the form of casing, packers, bridge
plugs, and potential tool loss due to wireline
parting. Therefore, special precautions must be
followed during the HEPF operations.
Experience
CNLC has more than 100 jobs experience in
HEPF techniques and the operation type
includes wireline and TCP.