LateralScience engineered completion evaluation matches production log results on 21 of 24 stages.
Production logs and engineered completions
Fracture stimulation treatments for horizontal wells are designed and pumped one stage at a time. To effectively evaluate the benefits of LateralScience engineered completions, it is ideal to investigate production results perforation cluster by perforation cluster, rather than stage by stage.
Comparing the results of the LateralScience process to a production log is the most accurate and effective way to evaluate this engineered completion technology and gives direct, measured insight into the validity of this technology. The subject well was drilled in the summer of 2015 and, upon completion in 2016, the contribution of each cluster was evaluated using a production log.
Evaluation approach
The well completion was executed in Q2 2016 using three clusters per stage, with 99 ft of spacing between perforation clusters. Overall, the 8,500-ft lateral was completed in 29 stages. As shown in the accompanying “MSE Color/Prod %” table, each perforation cluster in the LateralScience cluster analysis is color-coded per the calculated hardness index, while the value in the far-right column shows the percent of total well production, indicated by the production log. The numerical value shown for each cluster represents the percent of total well flow for that particular perf cluster. The sum of each row matches the value in the far-right column.
The LateralScience cluster analysis predicts that the perf clusters in only nine of the 29 stages are placed in similar rock, thus all three perf clusters would be expected to contribute significant flow. Of the remaining 20 stages, the analysis predicts five would have two clusters flowing, 10 would have one cluster flowing, and five have drilling data issues that compromise the ability to make an accurate prediction.
Because each stage is stimulated independently, the evaluation is done one stage at a time. This is equivalent to performing 29 independent tests of the LateralScience process, which leads to a much more statistically significant evaluation.
For each three-cluster stage, there are eight possible flow-profile scenarios as detailed in the table to the right. This means that in this case of a geometric/random completion design, the odds of a flow profile prediction matching the production log exactly within each stage is one in eight. The LateralScience prediction is significantly better than this one-in-eight probability.
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