Schlumberger has introduced services aimed at protecting the connection of the hydraulic fracture to the wellbore in an effort to optimize productivity in conventional and unconventional wells, according to a news release.

Called AvantGuard advanced flowback services, the offering comprises flowback design and fracture protection that complement fracturing operations. Damage to the well and the formation is prevented by tailoring a predictive flowback design strategy with a defined secure operating envelope, Schlumberger said in the release. Application of the flowback design during the transition to production protects and stabilizes hydraulic fractures to efficiently enable all the clusters in each zone to produce without productivity impairment.

Modeling is conducted in the Flowback Advisor design model built on Mangrove engineered stimulation design. The AvantGuard model is adapted to the well’s specific geological, geochemical and geomechanical environment, the release said. The resulting flow is monitored using Vx multiphase well testing technology to accurately capture the transient changes of produced fluids and sand content during early flow in the life of the well. This level of control, Schlumberger said, begins during coiled tubing millout as the dynamic fluid and solids rate information is transmitted in real time to the coiled tubing unit to guide managing injection, return rate and pressure and optimize the balance condition.

In more than 50 operations conducted to date in unconventional plays including the Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Permian and Bakken Shales, AvantGuard services guided active control of coiled tubing injection parameters and the wellhead choke has kept wells in the defined secure operating envelope to protect fracture connectivity and productivity, the release said.