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Optimization of perforation orientation for achieving uniform proppant distribution between clusters

Previously, a mathematical model for the problem of slurry flow in a perforated wellbore was described and the underlying physical mechanisms were discussed. The purpose of this blog post, on the other hand, is to couple the model with an optimization algorithm to investigate optimal perforation orientations that lead to the desired uniform proppant distribution between perforations. A brief description of the model is added at the beginning to cater for readers who are not familiar with the previous blog post.

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Latest content

Recorded ARMA HFC 2023 Series Presentation– Optimization of Perforation Phasing for Improving Uniformity of Proppant Distribution Between Clusters

This ARMA Hydraulic Fracturing Community (HFC) presentation summarizes the work on proppant transport in horizontal perforated wellbores. Specifically, it discusses the model for proppant distribution between perforations depending on their orientation and location within the stage, optimal configurations are proposed, and performance is evaluated.

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Cyclists at top of Breckinridge Mountain

ResFrac at the Breckenridge Imperial Challenge

It’s that time of year again for our ResFrac team to embark upon the Imperial Challenge in Breckenridge, CO! As with last year, Egor, Dirk (ResFrac investor), and Garrett tackled the challenge this year. The Imperial Challenge is an annual triathlon where racers bike or run from the town of Breckenridge 6 miles and 850 feet up to the base of the Breckenridge ski resort, then skin (ski uphill) 3000 ft to the peak of the resort at 12,998 ft, then… ski off the other side.

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Technical barriers for deep closed-loop geothermal

This is the most exciting time in my lifetime for geothermal. There are many, many innovative things happening. To name a few – promising new approaches to Enhanced Geothermal Systems, geothermal projects in sedimentary and lower enthalpy formations, new approaches for geothermal exploration, lithium extraction from produced brines, geothermal energy storage, integrations with CO2 storage and capture, and new technologies for producing energy from hot water that is coproduced with oil and gas. However, this post is about a concept about which I remain skeptical – deep closed-loop heat exchangers (McClure, 2021). These designs are sometimes called ‘Advanced Geothermal Systems,’ AGS (Malek et al., 2022).

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Technical articles

Recorded ARMA HFC 2023 Series Presentation– Optimization of Perforation Phasing for Improving Uniformity of Proppant Distribution Between Clusters

This ARMA Hydraulic Fracturing Community (HFC) presentation summarizes the work on proppant transport in horizontal perforated wellbores. Specifically, it discusses the model for proppant distribution between perforations depending on their orientation and location within the stage, optimal configurations are proposed, and performance is evaluated.

Read more

Technical barriers for deep closed-loop geothermal

This is the most exciting time in my lifetime for geothermal. There are many, many innovative things happening. To name a few – promising new approaches to Enhanced Geothermal Systems, geothermal projects in sedimentary and lower enthalpy formations, new approaches for geothermal exploration, lithium extraction from produced brines, geothermal energy storage, integrations with CO2 storage and capture, and new technologies for producing energy from hot water that is coproduced with oil and gas. However, this post is about a concept about which I remain skeptical – deep closed-loop heat exchangers (McClure, 2021). These designs are sometimes called ‘Advanced Geothermal Systems,’ AGS (Malek et al., 2022).

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Modeling simulfracs and subsurface implications

Simulfrac’s are growing in popularity (see 2021 JPT article for when the trend was just gaining momentum). The idea is that one pumping crew can treat two wells simultaneously versus one well at a time. As such, a frac crew may zipper four wells at a time versus two. At ResFrac we are seeing an increase in simulfrac interest across our consulting and license customers. Simulfrac’ing wells within the ResFrac software is simple to set up without any complicated modifications – so this makes ResFrac an ideal platform to investigate the effects of simulfracs.

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ResFrac updates

Cyclists at top of Breckinridge Mountain

ResFrac at the Breckenridge Imperial Challenge

It’s that time of year again for our ResFrac team to embark upon the Imperial Challenge in Breckenridge, CO! As with last year, Egor, Dirk (ResFrac investor), and Garrett tackled the challenge this year. The Imperial Challenge is an annual triathlon where racers bike or run from the town of Breckenridge 6 miles and 850 feet up to the base of the Breckenridge ski resort, then skin (ski uphill) 3000 ft to the peak of the resort at 12,998 ft, then… ski off the other side.

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DOE Innovators Roundtable on Enhanced Geothermal Systems with Secretary Granholm

This week, the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, was in Houston to announce an ‘Earthshot’ initiative to accelerate domestic production of zero-emission, baseload geothermal energy  Secretary Granholm announced the initiative at a press conference, and then hosted a roundtable discussion with Reginald DesRoches, the president of Rice University, and a group of innovators in the geothermal space. ResFrac CEO Mark McClure was one of the participants in the roundtable. Sec. Granholm asked him how to increase engagement from the oil and gas industry in geothermal.

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Highlights on propagation from preexisting fractures in ResFrac

The purpose of this blog post is to cover recently developed ResFrac capability that allows investigation of the effect of natural fractures on hydraulic fracture propagation. While this option has always been available for the ‘discrete’ propagation algorithm, now it also has become available for the ‘continuous’ algorithm. There are some noticeable changes compared to the previous implementation and they are covered next.

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Industry perspectives

Interesting papers from the 2023 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference

The 2023 SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference was last week, and as usual, it had an outstanding lineup of papers and speakers. This blog post has a brief lineup of some of the papers that I found most interesting. As in past years, this rundown focuses on papers that I found interesting, based on my own personal interests. Usually, I am most interested in papers that improve our understanding ‘what’s going on’ in the subsurface. Also, I coauthored a paper at the conference, so naturally, I can’t help but include it on this list!

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2022 Geothermal Rising

Reflections from the 2022 Geothermal Rising Conference

This is an exciting time for EGS. Multistage hydraulic fracturing has tremendous potential to improve the productivity of geothermal wells in low permeability formations. Projects are happening right now to test this concept in full-scale EGS wells. If they prove successful, we could soon see a major increase in geothermal energy production.

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Commentary on Four New DFIT Papers: (a) Direct In-Situ Measurements of Fracture Opening/Closing from the EGS Collab Project; (b) Comparison of Stress Measurement Techniques from the Bedretto Project; (c) a Statistical Summary of 62 DFITs Interpretations Across Nine Shale Plays; and (d) A Different Perspective: An Article Advocating the Use of the Tangent Method

This post provides commentary on recent four papers on diagnostic fracture injection testing (DFIT). The first paper uses in-situ deformation measurements to directly observe fractures opening and closing during fracture injection-falloff tests (Guglielmi et al., 2022). The second compares various stress measurement techniques in a series of fracture/injection tests from the Bedretto project (Bröker and Ma, 2022). The third statistically reviews results from applying the interpretation procedure from McClure et al. (2019) to 62 DFITs across nine different shale plays (McClure et al., 2022). The fourth is an op-ed written in JPT (Journal of Petroleum Technology) by an advocate of the tangent method for estimating DFIT closure stress (Buijs, 2021; 2022). This article presupposes that the reader already has familiarity with these topics. If you would like more background, please refer to McClure et al. (2019).

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