With rapid inflation-driven capital cost escalation and an energy crisis gripping many parts of the world, energy companies are seeking balance between growth and strict capital discipline to satisfy stakeholders. This challenge is particularly evident in unconventional resource development, where high-cost hydraulic fracture treatments are required for commercial production. To tackle this problem, operators are focusing on pre-frac hydraulic fracture optimization and are seeking low-cost methods to quickly diagnose completions efficacy before moving to their next pad. In a capitally constrained market, traditional field diagnostics like microseismic and fiber optic monitoring are no longer feasible for many operators, opening the door for a new breed of diagnostic workflows.
In recent years, flowback analysis (FBA) has begun to emerge as a viable option to quickly diagnose completions efficacy on each and every well at a fraction of the cost of traditional field diagnostics, using data that is already typically gathered. FBA utilizes commonly gathered high resolution flow test data to estimate key hydraulic fracture and matrix parameters within days of opening the well to flow.
Due to persistently low gas prices in the North American market, application of FBA has been primarily focused on light tight oil plays, however, with gas prices exceeding $30/MMBTU in many parts of the world and LNG activity accelerating from many hubs, operators are beginning to turn their attention back to high-deliverability gas assets to try to keep up with rapidly growing demand.
Incorporating FBA diagnostics in hydraulic fracture optimization workflows allows operators to quickly assess frac treatment efficacy shortly after opening the well to flow, allowing these learnings to be applied on the next well or pad, all while incurring no additional field costs. When combined with hydraulic fracturing modeling, FBA delivers results 6-12 months earlier and at a fraction of the cost of other conventional diagnostic techniques. A case study from an emerging international shale gas play will be utilized to demonstrate how FBA was used to allow the operator to gather critical insights into the key performance drivers for their exploratory assets in the absence of long-term production as they pursued internal and external approval for commercial-scale development.
Historically FBA models have been developed for light tight oil reservoirs, with shale-gas specific models being left underdeveloped. This work develops a comprehensive shale gas FBA model and drastically expands the application by giving shale gas operators an effective tool to diagnose their fractures shortly after field execution without relying on cost-prohibitive field diagnostics. These methods provide operators with the tools necessary to tackle the rapidly growing energy crisis in a capital-constrained market environment.
