--> Abstract: Water-Fracs Provide Cost-Effective Well Stimulation Alternative in San Joaquin Valley, by S. Mathis; #90911 (2000)
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Abstract: Water-Fracs Provide Cost-Previous HitEffectiveNext Hit Well Stimulation Alternative in San Joaquin Valley

MATHIS, STEPHEN, Baker Oil Tools

The low production rates of high viscosity crudes associated with wells in the Kern County California area lead to difficulty in achieving production enhancement through cost-Previous HiteffectiveTop well stimulation practices. The tight economics also lead to difficulty in finding a stimulation technique that can be effectively applied to injection wells associated with these same fields. Following the successful application of water-fracturing to increase the injectivity of a water injector well in the Edison Field, water-fracturing was introduced to the Tejon Ranch field near Bakersfield California in hopes of providing stimulation to an oil well. Previous gel fracs in the Tejon Ranch field proved to be uneconomical due to high treatment costs associated with increased equipment requirements, combined with poor results.

This paper describes how a small-scale water-frac treatment provided productivity improvements from 6 bopd to initial rates of 30 to 50 bopd and sustained rates exceeding 20 bopd for one well in the Tejon Ranch Field. Comparison is provided of the water-frac well performance over its first year of production to a gel-frac in the same well, and two offset openhole gravel pack completions. The surface pumping equipment requirements for a treatment of this type are described, as are the procedures used to obtain a successful treatment. The paper concludes with a discussion of the geologic conditions that likely led to the successful result achieved here, and suggests other applications where this technique should be attempted.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90911©2000 AAPG Pacific Section and Western Region Society of Petroleum Engineers, Long Beach, California