Selection of the Right Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid for Unconventional Reservoir Engineering

Abstract

Unconventional resources are of major importance to the oil and gas industry due to its enormousness, however, due to the low permeability of these resources, there is a need for hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is the process of bombarding rocks with fluids at a rate high enough to create fractures in rocks to aid productivity. Selection of the right hydraulic fluids and additives determines the success or failure of the hydraulic fracturing process. Most researchers take into consideration the various types of hydraulic fracturing fluids and functions of the numerous additives used in fracturing. However, there is minimal knowledge of the fracturing fluid to consider based on the formation characteristics. Therefore, this research seeks to find the relationship between the rock properties of certain unconventional formations and the hydraulic fracturing treatment that is used by operators to establish a guideline that aids in the selection of fracturing fluids. Information of 400 fractured wells that were treated within 2015 was collected for the Bakken, Barnett, and Haynesville formations from fracfocus - which is a database that keeps information about all the fracturing fluid treatment used for wells in the United States. The trend of fracturing treatment with regards to the characteristics of the formation of these three formations was studied and a guideline developed based on the trend of fluids used in these formations.