Frac-n-Flow Testing to Screen Brittle Fracture Stages in Wolfcamp Formation, Permian Basin, USA

A new technique, fracturing-and-flowing (frac-n-flow) testing, is introduced for horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing (HDMHF) practitioners to check if the next stage would be a brittle fracture using the instantaneous shut-in pressure (ISIP) from the current stage. It was developed to reduce the number of not-flowing clusters in HDMHF treatments due to stress shadows in the development of tight oil reserves in Wolfcamp, Permian Basin, USA, and other similar fields. Preliminary frac-n-flow testing results show that a medium (200–1000 psi) increase in confining pressure under representative field in-situ stresses can transfer Indiana limestone from brittle fracturing to semi-ductile failing. Consequently, folds of increase (FOI) of matrix permeability vary from +13 (i.e., increase by 1300%) to −0.39 (i.e., decrease by 39%). Limestone is one of the major lithological components in Wolfcamp formation. Field ISIP data of two HDMHF wells in Wolfcamp formation show that the maximum stress shadows are +1297 psi and +1716 psi, respectively. These stress shadows might have transferred the fracturing process from brittle to semi-ductile, converting the corresponding stages from being stimulated and conductive (fracturing-n-flowing) to being damaged and not-flowing (failing-n-not-flowing). Field completion reports of the two wells confirmed that screen-out and other interruptions of operation occurred in these high stress shadowed stages.