Fracturing Techniques

A way to stimulate the well

BY Group 2:
What is Fracturing?

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of drilling and injecting
fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to
release natural gas inside.

Applications:

To stimulate groundwater wells.
To precondition or induce rock to cave in mining.
As a means of enhancing waste remediation processes, usually hydrocarbon waste or spills.
To dispose of waste by injection into deep rock formations.
As a method to measure the stress in the Earth.
For heat extraction to produce electricity in enhanced geothermal systems.
To increase injection rates for geologic sequestration of CO
2


Terra Slicing Technology

Advanced excavation technology
Terra Slicing cuts two perpendicular slices, through casing and
cement, 3-10 ft. deep into formation, using high-pressure abrasive
slurry (5000 psi)
Terra Slicing eliminates near-wellbore compaction, cleans
formation and increases permeability
Creates pressure drop in near-wellbore zone
Creates vertical permeability that does not exist naturally

Terra Slicing Process
The Terra Slicing tool is
lowered down to the target
formation.
STEP 1:
Terra Slicing Process
Abrasive Slurry is Injected down
to the hole at the target
formation at proper direction
and azimuth.


STEP 2:
Terra Slicing Process
Tool is raised after slicing has
been completed.
STEP 3:
Terra Slicing Process
Then after Powered chemical reagents
are circulated into the slice.

This cleans the slices and transfer the
near wellbore stress to the tip of the new
slices.
STEP 4:
Terra Slicing Process
Thus Porosity and PERMEABILITY are
increased in the sliced area of the near
wellbore.

Slicing reduces the pressure drops
STEP 5:
Slice Orientation
Slices are oriented perpendicular to
the maximum stress.

Permeability around the wellbore
increases 15-20X Fracture size is
minimum 6.2 X bigger
Contd:
----Maximum stresses ..fracture paths
Slices are like man made
hydraulic wedge.

Fracture propagates
perpendicular to slices,
parallel to maximum stresses.
Applications

Re-distributes stresses away from near-wellbore zone
Porosity increases >> 4-5x; Permeability >> 15x
Drainage volume increases 6.2x greater than borehole
Very deep penetration (compared to perforation)
Eliminates skin effects.
Creates vertical permeability that does not normally exist in
nature
So powerful it can cut multiple casings & deep rock

Does not crack any part of casing and cement.
The only technology that actually excavates rock
Accurate, since slices are done in pre determined direction
Ecologically safe / environmentally friendly
Creates pressure drop near wellbore

Plasma Technology
Plasma can be defined as an ionized gas containing molecules
,atoms, ions, electrons and photons, where the negative and
positive charges are approximately equal.

Introduction
Plasma Technology consists of exposing the wellbore to an argon
plasma jet to insure instantaneous and efficient heat transfer to
the surrounding wellbore rocks.
The high temperature of plasma jet changes the basic properties
of rock and increases porosity and permeability.
The increment in porosity and permeability is very high.
Why it is required?

It is beneficial for tight carbonate
formations containing large
amount of heavy oil.
The resources of heavy oil in the
world are more than twice those of
conventional light crude oil.
Materials
(1) Plasma Device:
Plasma is usually generated by applying a high frequency, high
voltage electric field to a gas.
This can be achieved through generating devices that have
electrodes, which are characterized by the presence of a cathode
and an anode like plasma arcs or electrodeless devices.
This Device uses inductive or capacitive coupling to generate
plasma.
(2) Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM):
Used to characterize pore size and pore structure of the rock
samples prior to and after exposure to ultrahigh temperatures.

(3) Mercury Porosimetery (ME):
Used to determine the porosity of the core samples.

(4) Thermo gravimetric Analyzer (TGA):
Used to examine the rate of decomposition of calcium
carbonate at different temperatures.
Small particles of about 10 mg, collected from the core
samples are heated in the TGA unit at temperatures ranging from
650 to 950 C at atmospheric pressure and under continuous flow
of pure nitrogen.
Decomposition of CaCO3
Due to ultra high temperature , calcium
carbonate decomposes to form calcium
oxide and carbon dioxide according to the
following equation:
CaCO3 =CaO + CO2
Both the decomposition temperature and
reaction time affect the physical properties
of the formed calcium oxide.


A high burning temperature and long calcination time yield a
hard-burned quicklime that has high density and low porosity.
Whereas a low burning temperature and short burning duration
yield soft-burned lime with low density and high porosity.
The low burning temperature should be high enough to reach high
conversation but less than the Tammann temperature (at which
bulk density increases)of the CaO.
As the heating temperature increases the
amount of carbon dioxide at equilibrium
increases.
This would clearly indicate that the higher
the temperature the more CO2 released
and the more voids or pores are created
within the carbonate rock until the
reaction reaches completion.
Between 1200 K and 1500 K the release of carbon monoxide
during the decomposition reaction results increasing voids
representing about 57% of the solid volume.
This indicates that a calcium carbonate rock can achieve high
porosity and hence high permeability.

Pros:
Uses argon gas as fracturing fluid which is an inert gas. So, no
hazardous effect to surrounding environment.
Could be applied to tight heavy oil reservoirs where dual benefits
of the process could be obtained: permeability improvement and
viscosity reduction
Directly concentrate to nearby reservoir area.
Environmentally friendly.



Cons:
Requires research work.
More expensive.

Conclusions

Ultra -high heat proven to improve the porosity and permeability
of tight carbonates rocks.
Porosity & permeability analysis of heated carbonate samples
indicated that the porosity and permeability increased by 100%
and 5000 % respectively at 1000 C