Hydraulic Fracturing Pressure Depleted Wells Proves Successful

By

Ahmed Ezzat¹, Rob Poole²

(1) GUPCO, Cairo, Egypt (2) Halliburton, Egypt, Cairo, Egypt

 In Egypt, hydraulic fracturing has recently been employed on 27 years old producing oil wells. With bottom hole reservoir pressure, BHP, initially at 4500 psi these wells continue to produce oil with 1000-1500 psi BHP. The formation is predominately a 40-50 ft net-pay sandstone with multiple sandy-shale stringers encompassing a gross height of 150 ft. Formation permeability ranges from 1 to 25 md.

In light of the current oil market conditions and the uncertainty of oil prices, very favorable economic conditions still remain in fracturing pressure-depleted wells. The Hydraulic fracturing process has provided three purposes:

1) Frac Past the wellbore damage caused from years of oil production. 2) Connect multiple thin laminated sand stringers into one dominant fracture. 3) Increase reserves growth by fracturing into new productive formation layers.

This paper is a case history of 5 wells that will demonstrate the economic value achieved from the production increase and subsequent production decline as compared to non-fractured wells. The fracture parameters, rock mechanics, and leakoff parameters will be discussed that have made this technique successful in Egypt.