The petroleum engineering literature clearly shows that large proppant volumes
and concentrations are required to effectively stimulate low-permeability gas
sands. To pump large proppant concentrations, one must use a viscous fluid.
However, many operators believe that low-viscosity, low-proppant concentration
fracture stimulation treatments known as ??waterfracs?? produce comparable
stimulation results in low-permeability gas sands and are preferred because they
are less expensive than gelled fracture treatments.
This study evaluates fracture stimulation technology in tight gas sands by using
case histories found in the petroleum engineering literature and by using a
comparison of the performance of wells stimulated with different treatment sizes
in the Cotton Valley sands of the East Texas basin. This study shows that large
proppant volumes and viscous fluids are necessary to optimally stimulate tight
gas sand reservoirs. When large proppant volumes and viscous fluids are not
successful in stimulating tight sands, it is typically because the fracture fluids
have not been optimal for the reservoir conditions. This study shows that
waterfracs do produce comparable results to conventional large treatments in the Cotton Valley sands of the East Texas basin, but we believe it is because the
conventional treatments have not been optimized. This is most likely because
the fluids used in conventional treatments are not appropriate or have not been
used appropriately for Cotton Valley conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2617 |
| Date | 01 November 2005 |
| Creators | Tschirhart, Nicholas Ray |
| Contributors | Holditch, Stephen A. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 4333175 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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