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Microproppants Deliver Macro Returns 

Utica Shale (Ohio)

Three wells—two Deeprop® and one offset—were studied in the Utica shale, eastern Ohio, at about 7,500 ft TVD. Figures 7 and 8 show the cum oil and gas for the three wells. Deeprop® delivered an uplift in oil production of up to 22% and a 27% uplift in gas production after roughly a year.

 

Permian/Delaware Basin (Texas)

Five tests are currently underway in the Permian Wolfcamp—two in the Permian basin and three in the Delaware basin—and preliminary results are encouraging. One test in the Delaware Basin currently has ten months of production data. The Deeprop® well has a 9% uplift, or 23,342 additional BOE, compared to the best offset producer.

 

Examining all of these wells together, the Deeprop® treatment has delivered major results and paid for itself in less than 4 months, on average. After 25 months, the average uplift across the Deeprop® wells in the major plays highlighted above is 40%. After 36 months, test wells have experienced uplift ranging from 10% to as high as 81%.

Figure-7.jpg

Figure 7 – Cumulative Oil for the Eastern Ohio case.

Figure-8.jpg

Figure 8 – Cumulative Gas for the Eastern Ohio case.

What Deeprop® Does for the Bottom Line

The field applications described above are proof positive of Deeprop’s® ability to dramatically boost the bottom line of shale well production. Operators have seen for themselves the benefits of:

  • Significantly more uplift.

  • Lower treat rates.

  • Generating larger productive fracture area.

  • Less steep decline curves.

 

Ultimately, Deeprop® can help operators in shale plays across the US, and across the globe, add years to the productive life of their wells, with an investment that pays for itself in just a few months.

Conclusion

On more than 200 wells to date, Deeprop® 1000 delivered an average increase in cumulative production of up to 50% versus control wells. At $45/bbl oil net, after transportation and royalty costs, a Deeprop® well producing an additional 35,000 BOE of oil (a typical increase observed in the field) adds $1.58 million in revenue to the well.

References:

  1. Dahl, J., Nguyen, P., Dusterhoft, R., Calvin, J. et al. 2015. Application of Micro-Proppant to Enhance Well Production in Unconventional Reservoirs: Laboratory and Field Results. Presented at SPE Western Regional Meeting, Garden Grove, California, USA, 27-30 April. SPE-174060-MS. https://doi.org/10.2118/174060-MS.

  2. Calvin, J., Grieser, W., and Bachman, T., 2017. Enhancement of Well Production in the SCOOP Woodford Shale through the Application of Microproppant. Presented at SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition held in The Woodlands, Texas USA, 24-26 January 2017. SPE-184863-MS.

  3. Rassenfoss, Stephen, Testing Tiny Grains Seeking More Output, Journal of Petroleum Technology, Society of Petroleum Engineers, March 2017, pp 28-33.

  4. Brice Y. Kim and I. Yucel Akkutlu, Texas A&M University; Vladimir Martysevich and Ron Dusterhoft, Halliburton, Laboratory Measurement of Microproppant Placement Quality using Split Core Plug Permeability under Stress, presented at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition held in The Woodlands, Texas USA, 23-25 January 2018. SPE-189832-MS.

  5. Dharmendra K., Gonzales, Ruben A. and Ghassemi, Ahmed, The University of Oklahoma; The Role of Micro-proppants in Conductive Fracture Network Development, presented at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition held in The Woodlands, Texas USA, 5-7 February 2019. SPE-194340-MS.

  6. Shrivastava, Kaustubh and Sharma, Mukul M.; Proppant Transport in Complex Fracture Networks, presented at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition held in The Woodlands, Texas USA, 23-25 January 2018. SPE-189895-MS.

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