Host:  Society of Petroleum Engineers, Denver Section

Event:  February 15, 2023 General Meeting

Time:  February 15, 2023 11:30am-1:00pm

Speaker:  Karen Olson, Senior Completions Advisor (Well Data Labs, Inc.) and SPE Completions Technical Director

Title:  Sealed Wellbore Pressure Monitoring (SWPM) and Calibrated Fracture Modeling: The next step in Unconventional Completions Optimization (SPE 212367-MS)

Presentation Abstract:

Sealed Wellbore Pressure Monitoring (SWPM) has been utilized across North and South America Basins with over 16,000 stages monitored as of June 2022. Since May 2020, the analysis procedure has been automated using a cloud-based software platform designed to ingest, process, and analyze high-frequency hydraulic fracturing data (Iriarte et al., 2021). A real time option of SWPM was also developed to aid in real time fracturing decisions (Ramirez et al., 2022).

 The latest development is the added capability of a fracture model that can automatically history match the volume to first responses (VFRs) determined from SWPM. This next level allows for the matching of the VFRs and the visualization of the resulting fracture geometries from a fully-coupled fracture propagation, reservoir, and geomechanics simulator. The simulator is capable of accounting for complex processes such as poroelastic stress changes from depletion, allowing for evaluation of complex interactions of fracture propagation and depletion. Insights gained from this process allows the operator to optimize their completion design faster and with fewer field trials.

 This presentation focus is a case study of the DOE Eagle Ford refracturing project where a range of completion designs were trialed while monitoring offset SWPM and fiber optic strain. The resulting VFRs of the SWPM project were compared to the fiber data and then used to calibrate the fracture model.

Conclusions of the DOE project will show the optimum cluster spacing, cluster count and stage spacing as confirmed by the SWPM analysis and the fracture modeling.

Please register for the event here

Speaker Biography:

Karen Olson is a Senior Completions Advisor for Well Data Labs, Inc.  Previously Karen was the Technology Director for Southwestern Energy Company.

Ms. Olson has been a Completion/Reservoir Engineer for almost 40 years, starting her career as a Frac Engineer for The Western Company of North America. She has also worked at Holditch and Associates, Mobil, and BP working Deepwater GOM, Onshore Unconventionals & Conventionals and the North Sea.

 Karen has been active with SPE and is currently the SPE Completions Technical Director.

Karen holds a BS degree in Petroleum Engineering from LSU and a MS degree in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M.  She has been honored as a Distinguished Alumni Graduate in Petroleum Engineering from Texas A&M and currently serves on the Texas A&M Petroleum Engineering Department Industry Advisory Board and the SPE Board of Directors.