Multistage Stimulation in Liquid-Rich

Unconventional Formations

Production of liquids from shale formations, pioneered in North America, has grown
exponentially in the past decade. The economics of these plays, however, remain
sensitive to prices and demand, thus operators and service companies must continually
develop more-efcient methods of recovering these once-overlooked hydrocarbons.

Isaac Aviles
Jason Baihly
Sugar Land, Texas, USA
Guang Hua Liu
CNPC-Dagang Oileld Company
Tianjin, Peoples Republic of China
Oileld Review Summer 2013: 25, no. 2.
Copyright 2013 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to
Amy Simpson, Houston.
Copperhead, DiamondBack, Falcon, KickStart, nZone,
PowerDrive Archer and Spear are marks of Schlumberger.
1. For more on kerogen and oil shales: Allix P, Burnham A,
Fowler T, Herron M, Kleinberg R and Symington B:
Coaxing Oil from Shale, Oileld Review 22, no. 4
(Winter 2010/2011): 415.
2. Baihly J, Altman R and Aviles I: Has the Economic Stage
Count Been Reached in the Bakken Shale?, paper
SPE 159683, presented at the SPE Hydrocarbon,
Economics and Evaluation Symposium, Calgary,
September 2425, 2012.
3. Jabbari H and Zeng Z: Hydraulic Fracturing Design for
Horizontal Wells in the Bakken Formation, paper
ARMA 12-128, presented at the 46th US Rock Mechanics/
Geomechanics Symposium, Chicago, June 2427, 2012.
4. Baihly et al, reference 2.
5. Martin R, Baihly J, Malpani R, Lindsay G and Atwood WK:
Understanding Production from the Eagle FordAustin
Chalk System, paper SPE 145117, presented at the
SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Denver, October 30November 2, 2011.
6. Martin et al, reference 5.
7. For more on PowerDrive Archer technology: Felczak E,
Torre A, Godwin ND, Mantle K, Naganathan S,
Hawkins R, Li K, Jones S and Slayden F: The Best of
Both WorldsA Hybrid Rotary Steerable System,
Oileld Review 23, no. 4 (Winter 2011/2012): 3644.
For more on the Spear bit: Centala P, Challa V,
Durairajan B, Meehan R, Paez L, Partin U, Segal S, Wu S,
Garrett I, Teggart B and Tetley N: Bit DesignTop to
Bottom, Oileld Review 23, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 417.
8. Baihly et al, reference 2.

During the past decade, oil companies have

performed thousands of hydraulic stimulations on intervals along horizontal wellbores drilled through ultralow-permeability
formations. Operators are using these techniques to exploit organic-rich shales, which
were traditionally viewed only as source rock for
conventional reservoirs.
These extremely tight sedimentary formations differ signicantly from oil shales, which
are sedimentary rocks containing kerogenpartially degraded organic materialthat has not
yet matured enough to generate hydrocarbons.1
In contrast, as a result of the pressure and heat of
the burial process, the kerogen in gas- and liquidrich shales has matured sufciently to generate
signicant amounts of gas and oil, which remain
trapped within the shale.

Numerous liquid-rich shale formations exist

in North America. Among these are the Bakken
and the Eagle Ford formations. Unlike in other
unconventional plays around the world, operators and service companies have years of experience working in these two extensive plays. The
formations are familiar to petrophysicists and
engineers and have been the proving grounds for
much of the technology now used to exploit
unconventional liquid-rich reservoirs.
Covering an area of 780,000 km2 [300,000 mi2],
the Bakken formation lies within the Williston
basin of North Dakota, South Dakota and
Montana in the US and in parts of Manitoba and
Saskatchewan in Canada (below).2 Operators
rst produced oil and gas from this formation in
the early 1960s through conventional vertical
wells. In the 1980s, production increased when

Saskatchewan
CANADA

Manitoba

Regina

Bakken Formation

USA
Montana

North Dakota
Billings

Bismark
Williston Basin

Wyoming

South Dakota

> The Bakken. The Bakken formation (pink) covers an area of more than 780,000 km2 across the states of
Montana and North Dakota in the US and parts of the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

26

Oileld Review

operators began drilling horizontal wells.3 When

operators combined the complementary technologies of horizontal drilling and hydraulic stimulation to maximize the amount of formation
exposed to the wellbore, North Dakota production from Bakken elds rose dramatically, from
16,000 m3 [100,000 bbl] per day in 2005 to
96,000 m3 [600,000 bbl] per day in 2012.4
These increased production rates in North
Dakota led geoscientists to consider using the
same techniques to produce oil from source rock
in other existing plays, including the Eagle Ford
Shale, in Texas, USA, which is the source rock for
the massive hydrocarbon accumulation that has
produced from the Austin Chalk for 80 years.
That trend overlies the Eagle Ford Shale across
large swaths of south Texas (right).5 The Eagle
Ford play, which stretches from central Texas
southwest into Mexico, is 160 km [100 mi] long
and averages 100 km [60 mi] wide.6
In an effort to help operators optimally
exploit unconventional plays, service companies
have rened certain critical technologies. Today,
operators are able to drill long horizontal wells
and place them accurately within formation
sweet spots. Production and completion engineers have also sought to improve methods for
stimulating the numerous potentially productive
intervals pierced by these wells (see Stimulation
Design for Unconventional Resources, page 34).
Renements to directional drilling assemblies such as the PowerDrive Archer rotary steerable system have led to more efcient drilling
through higher build rates and improved rates of
penetration. In addition, engineers have designed
bits specically for use in shale formations. The
Spear steel bit from Smith Bits, a Schlumberger
company, is designed to meet the demands
unique to rotary steerable systems drilling in
shale formations.7
In ultralow-permeability formations, operators nearly always use multistage stimulation
(MSS) techniques to access commercial volumes of oil, condensate and dry gas. These
methods enable engineers to stimulate multiple intervals along horizontal sections.
Typically, completion engineers isolate individual intervals and, either through perforating or by opening sliding sleeves, expose the
zone to be treated. The well is then hydraulically stimulated. Engineers repeat this
sequence, moving upward along the wellbore
until all targeted zones have been stimulated.
This article examines various MSS methods.
Case histories from the US and China illustrate
their use and advantages.

Summer 2013

USA
Texas

Texas

MEXICO

Eagle Ford
Shale Formation

Oil window
Wet gascondensate window
Dry gas window

lf of
Gu

Mexico

km 100

mi

100

> The Eagle Ford. The Eagle Ford Shale formation, which is the source rock
for the Austin Chalk play, covers a large swath across southern Texas and
runs parallel to and north of the Gulf of Mexico coastline. The burial process
of the Eagle Ford formation has resulted in a trend of oil (green), wet gas and
condensate (yellow), and dry gas (blue) from the northwest to southeast.

Balls, Seats and Valves

As the industry improved its ability to drill horizontally, wellbore lengths increased. So too did
the number of intervals that had to be isolated
and treated. In 2007, the average treatment number, or stage count, in Bakken wells was three.
By the end of 2011, that number was nearly 30,
and some wells had more than 40 stages in a
single lateral.8
While the economies of scale seemed to dictate treating as many intervals as possible per
wellbore, operators sought to improve well economics further by reducing the time required to
stimulate all the stages in a given well. Exploiting
a liquid-rich shale play is drilling intensive, and
despite the advantages of hydraulically treating
longer wells, the drainage area of each wellbore
in these tight formations is limited. With more
than 200 rigs working in the Bakken at the end of
2011, there was great economic incentive to move
the rigs off one well and on to the next as quickly
as possible.

Traditionally, stimulating multiple zones in a

conventional vertical well involved perforating
the lowest zone, retrieving the perforating guns
and pumping the treatment. The operator owed
the well back to drain extra proppant and carrying uids and to force closure of the propped
fracture. The completion engineer then set a
bridge plug to isolate the interval from those
above, pulled out of the hole to pick up perforating guns and repeated the process. Once all zones
were treated, drillers milled out or retrieved the
plugs and brought the well on line. Often, the
well had to be completed with multiple strings of
tubing or isolation valves to prevent crossow
between zones having different pressures. While
this was a time-consuming process, it was not
economically prohibitive in a vertical well with
only two or three stages.
However, when dozens of intervals in each
wellbore needed treatment, operators sought

27

Perforations

Heel

Toe
Frac plugs

> Plugging and perforating procedure. In a typical cemented and cased well plug and perf scenario,
the deepest interval at the toe of the well is perforated and treated first. A plug is then set above the
perforation cluster. The next stage is treated, a plug is set, perforations are added and the process is
repeated until all intervals are stimulated. The driller mills the plugs using coiled tubing or a
conventional drillstring. The operator then commingles production for all intervals.

to reduce the time required between reaching

total depth and initial production. In response,
service companies developed more-efficient
treatment methods that relied on external
packers, balls and seats, or plugs, to isolate
and treat intervals. They also developed valves
that, in some circumstances, could be substituted for perforations.
Today, most horizontal wells are completed
so that each interval can be isolated and perforated in one interventionusing pumpdown
wireline or coiled tubing conveyanceand then
treated. A final intervention may be required to
mill out isolation plugs. Because the intervals
are in one zone and equally pressured, the well
is ready to produce.

Typically, service company completion specialists use plugs or ball-and-seat systems to isolate each stage. When the company opts for a
plug, it is placed on wireline and pumped down
the hole, or less commonly, it is run and set on
coiled tubing. The assembly includes perforating
guns. Once the plug is set above the topmost perforation cluster of the previous stage, the completion team pulls the guns into position. Each
cluster of the next stage is then perforated, and
the tools, along with the spent guns, are retrieved.
Next, the team stimulates the open interval,
and this plug and perf procedure is repeated
(above). When all intervals have been treated,
the driller mills out the plugs, and production
from all intervals is commingled.

Closed Position

Heel

Valve seat

Frac sleeve

Toe

Making Good Ideas Better

In the mid-1960s, water depth of more than about
60m [200ft] was considered by the E&P industry
to be a very deep working environment. But

Open Position

Flow port

Ball

Frac sleeve

> Ball and seat. A valve device is run into the hole in the closed position (top). When the ball (bottom,
red) lands in a valve seat in a frac sleeve (green), pressure applied at the surface causes the sleeve to
slide downward and open a flow port, which exposes the interval to be treated. The ball seals against
the valve seat to isolate the previously treated stage below it. This process is repeated for each
stimulation stage.

28

65263schD6R1.indd 28

In other completion designs, a valve containing a ball seat and sliding sleeve is run into the
hole as part of the completion. External packers
isolate each interval. The ball seat is designed to
capture a ball of a specific size that is pumped
into the well. The diameters of the seats become
successively larger from the bottom to the top of
the completion. When the ball lands in the seat,
continued pumping causes pressure to build
against the ball and seat (below left). At a specified pressure, the ball-and-seat assembly moves
downward, which opens a sleeve in the valve to
expose the formation between the external packers. The interval is then treated. The next larger
size ball is then run, isolating the treated zone.
Completion specialists repeat this ball drop
stimulation treatment sequence for all intervals beginning at the toe and moving toward the
heel of the well. The method offers an advantage
over the use of plugs because, as long as the ball
seats do not represent a significant flow restriction, the balls may be flowed back to the surface, obviating the need for and risk of milling.
Additionally, the operation is continuous, thus
less time consuming.
For cemented completions, engineers may perform similar operations using specially designed
valves run as part of the completion string. When
the ball is pumped downhole, it lands and creates
a seal in the seat of the deepest exposed valve,
which results in a closed system. Pressuring the
well causes the sliding sleeve to open, allowing the
interval to be treated directly through the cement.
As a result, the operator does not need to perforate
the casing and cement first.
Despite the success of these systems, operators still seek hedges against narrow profit margins and unpredictable commodity prices that
govern the economics of unconventional plays. In
an effort to cushion profit margins, service companies are working with operators to refine MSS
practices and tools and to shave costs and risks
from well completion operations while simultaneously increasing production rates and ultimate
recovery from these wells.

9. Raulins GM: Well Servicing by Pump Down

Techniques, paper OTC 1016, presented at the First
Annual Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May
1821, 1969.
10. Stegent N and Howell M: Continuous Multistage
Fracture-Stimulation Completion Process in a Cemented
Wellbore, paper SPE 125365, presented at the SPE
Eastern Regional Meeting, Charleston, West Virginia,
USA, September 2325, 2009.

Oilfield Review

8/19/13 6:18 PM

operators were already contemplating the implications of servicing subsea wells completed with
wellheads on the seaoor in water as deep as
3,650 m [12,000 ft]. To address the challenges of
deep water, engineers developed several technologies, including pumpdown for interventions
traditionally performed using slickline.9
Pumpdown systems convey tools downhole
using uid pressure. When uid is pumped
against mandrels equipped with swab cups, tools
move up or down the tubing. Because this system
requires the uid to circulate, designers created
a crossover port that allowed circulation between
the tubing and the annulus.
Today, completion engineers apply this
method to push plugs and perforating guns
attached to electric line to depth in horizontal
wells. Service technicians set the plug above the
shallowest perforation cluster of the previous
fracture stage, detach the perforation guns from
the plug assembly and move up the hole to create
the next perforation cluster. After the guns have
been red, they are retrieved to the surface, and
the interval stage is stimulated. The process is
repeated for each stage. Once stimulation operations are complete, the driller must mill out each
plug before putting the well on production.
In this form of MSS, the last stepmilling
is often the most difcult and time-consuming
portion of the operation in high-angle wells
because weight on bit is limited. Engineers have
developed plugs of varying design and material
that are able to withstand stimulation pressures
while at the same time are more easily ground
into cuttings than are traditional cast-iron bridge
plugs; these cuttings are small enough to be circulated out of the hole.
The aluminum Copperhead drillable and owthrough fracture plug and the DiamondBack
composite fracture plug are examples of these
new plugs (above right). The former is rated to
103.4 MPa [15,000 psi] and 205C [400F] and is
designed to withstand multiple pressure and
temperature cycles. The latter may be used when
downhole conditions are less extreme and is
rated for pressures up to 68.9 MPa [10,000 psi]
and temperatures up to 177C [350F].
Both plugs are signicantly easier to mill than
are standard cast-iron plugs. Researchers have
also developed a mill specically for drilling out
the Copperhead plug. The new mill reduces milling time and creates smaller cuttings. Because
the DiamondBack plug is constructed of a composite material that is considerably softer than
metal plugs, it is easily and quickly milled using
standard mills.

Summer 2013

Copperhead Plug

DiamondBack Plug

Aluminum slip pads

with cast-iron facing
Shear
ring

Aluminum slip pads

with cast-iron facing

Sealing aluminum
backup ring
Element backup
Shear
ring

Aluminum slip pads

with cast-iron facing

Aluminum slip pads

with cast-iron facing
Pumpdown ring

> Bridge plugs. The Copperhead plug body (left) includes slip pads constructed
of aluminum with cast-iron facing, which helps prevent cracks in the slips
when deployed in hard casing. The Copperhead plug includes a shear ring
embedded in the slips (not shown) to help ensure that presetting does not
occur and an element backup that enhances seal effectiveness while the
bridge plug is exposed to multiple pressure changes. Because the plug body
and slips are composed mainly of aluminum rather than cast iron, when the
plug is milled, its cuttings are more easily owed from the well. The
DiamondBack plug (right) consists of composite material. Like the Copperhead
plug, the DiamondBack plug includes an internal shear ring to prevent
presetting. It also features rigid slips and a pumpdown ring to minimize uid
use. Because the plug is composed of a composite material, it can be quickly
milled with a standard mill.

In addition, both plugs are designed to prevent

premature setting, which can be a problem with
plugs that are landed and set on slips intended to
wedge against the casing wall. If plugs of this
design are conveyed downhole at excessive speeds,
the slips may overtake the lower mandrel on the
plug, causing them to expand against the casing
wall and the tool to set. To help prevent this problem, both plugs use shear rings to hold the slips in
place until at least half the set-down weight is
applied to the assembly. This signicantly reduces
the chances that the plugs will be set prematurely
even when they are run or pumped into the well at
relatively high speeds.
When developing the pumpdown concept,
designers incorporated a circulation path for
fluids exiting the tubing and returning to the

surface via the casing annulus. This process is

not possible in cemented horizontal wells
because until the well is perforated, the well is
a closed system. Therefore, during plug and
perforation operations using the pumpdown
technique in a cemented horizontal wellbore,
the first set of perforating gunsthose at the
toe of the wellmust be conveyed on coiled
tubing, wireline tractor or drillpipe. Service
industry experts have tried several methods to
avoid this costly step, including overdisplacing
the cement to leave a flow path open through
the casing shoe. For numerous reasons, including the inability to get a pressure test of the
casing and cement, most operators deemed
this wet shoe solution unacceptable.10

29

Fracture ports

Piston

Rupture discs

> First stage valve. The KickStart rupture disc valve eliminates an intervention
during MSS operations by facilitating circulation at the toe of horizontal
wells. The valve is part of the casing string and is cemented in place along
with the casing. After the casing is pressure tested, the well is pressured to
some value higher than the test pressure to rupture the discs and open the
valve. The fracture ports are designed to ensure that at least one opening is
within 3 of the minimum stress direction of the formation to be stimulated.

Schlumberger researchers addressed the

problem of opening this closed system without
mechanical intervention through the KickStart
pressure-activated rupture disc valve for
cemented multistage fracturing. The valve is
run as part of the casing string one or two joints
above the oat shoe. Its internal diameter is
nearly equal to that of a 4 1/2- or 51/2-in. casing,
which allows it to accommodate standard
cement wiper plugs and requires no change to
cementing procedures. The valve includes two
discs, but only one must rupture for the stimulation to be successful.
Once the disc ruptures, a helical port pattern
made up of seven 6-in. long ports with 15 phasing is open to the cement sheath through which
the interval is stimulated (above). Following
numerous iterations in the laboratory, mathematical modeling and nite element analysis, designers arrived at this conguration, which minimized
fracture initiation pressure through the cement

30

while promoting a single vertical fracture in the

cement. Experts have expressed doubts about
the efcacy of fracture stimulations performed
through ports instead of perforations, but the
KickStart valve arrangement allays those concerns by ensuring that at least one of the fracturing slots is no more than 3 from one of the
minimum stress points on the hoop stress envelope of the wellbore. The total area of all the
ports is 69 cm2 [10.7 in2], which is the equivalent
of six 0.6-m [2-ft] long perforation clusters with
19 shots per meter [6 shots per ft].11
After the casing string is cemented in place
and the casing has been pressure tested, the
driller increases pump pressure to a predetermined level, which ruptures the discs in the
KickStart valve. This exposes the cement in the
annulus through which the formation is stimulated. The nal step of the treatment is to pump a
ush uid, which can also be used as the pumpdown uid for the next plug and perforation gun
assembly. Then, the remaining intervals may be

plugged and perforated using standard pumpdown practices.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, a long-time
Eagle Ford Shale operator, has implemented
numerous innovations in the play, including
reducing well spacing without sacricing wellbore length. In one campaign, the completion
engineer used the rupture disc valve to stimulate
the toe section of the formation in more than a
dozen wells. Typically, the wells in the Buckhorn
area of the shale play are drilled in 5,500-ft
[1,676-m] laterals and are stimulated in 14 to
20 stages.
The operator tested its casing to 10,000 psi
[68.9 MPa] with the KickStart valve discs set to
rupture when the pressure was 10,600 to
10,800 psi [73 to 74.5 MPa]. Cabot engineers routinely pumped the rst treatment consisting of
more than 250,000 lbm [113,000 kg] of proppant,
at 65 bbl/min [10 m3/min] through the valve
ports. When engineers compared the results of
the section treated through the valve with those
treated through perforations, they found that the
pump pressures, rates and volumes all compared
favorably. They also concluded that the KickStart
valve saved the operator more than US$ 100,000
per well by eliminating the coiled tubing intervention to perforate the interval at the toe of
the well.12
Savings per well is critical for operators
producing from low-permeability formations
because these plays are typically exploited
using many wells that produce at rates near
their economic limit. To make such a strategy
work requires each well to be drilled, completed
and produced efciently. The plug and perforate
procedure with the rst stage performed using
the KickStart rupture disc valves helps operators reach that goal.13
Ball and Seat
In the past decade, operators have come to view
openhole completions in horizontal wells as substantially more cost-efcient than cemented
completions. These systems use hydraulically set
or swellable packers to isolate each interval.
Sliding sleeve valves, run as part of the completion tubulars between packers, are opened by
hydraulic pressure applied to a seal created by a
ball that is dropped from the surface to land in a
mated seat. These seats increase in size from the
smallest in the toe to the largest in the heel of the
well, thus the smallest ball passes through each
seat to the toe and the largest stops in the rst
seat near the heel (next page).

Oileld Review

The industry has embraced these openhole

systems because they may result in certain
advantages over plug and perforate cased hole
completions:
less time-consuming and less expensive completion operations
production from the open hole as well as the
fractures
a simpler connection between the wellbore and
the fractures
wellbore fractures that generate higher early
production.14
These systems also have potential disadvantages. Unlike cased wells that are stimulated
through valves or perforations, openhole stimulations are conned only by packers, which may
leave large sections of formation exposed
between them. As a consequence, the operator
has little control of the fracture location or
number of fractures created in a stage. In addition, as the ball seats decrease in size with well
depth, friction pressures increase, which may
result in higher overall fracture initiation and
extension pressures.15
There may also be problems with the interaction between the ball and seat. When the ball
lands and pressure is applied, the sleeve slides
downward, exposing the annulus for treatment.
The ball and seat then become the barrier isolating the lower intervals of the hole that have been
previously treated. Both these actuator and seal
functions are critical. If the ball fails to create a
seal, the sliding sleeve may not move and the
interval cannot be treated. At the same time, previously treated zones below the seat may be
exposed a second time to stimulation uids and
pressure, which can damage production from
that zone as well.
After all the intervals have been successfully
treated, the balls must ow off their seats and not
impair production. Operators had long assumed
that the balls oated off their seats even though
not all balls were accounted for in a ball catcher
at the surface. The widely accepted explanation
for this seeming discrepancy has been that some
balls ow back to a highly deviated point in the
well where they churn in the ow and smash
against each other until they break into pieces
that are small enough to ow out of the well.16
However, some operators have become sufciently concerned about ball material left in the
well that they routinely mill the seats to make
certain the ow path is clear. One operator
found that after milling the ball-and-seat
sleeves in 10 wells, estimated ultimate recovery

Summer 2013

nesses in the layer bonding that may cause them

to fail under pressure. If they land on the seat in
certain positions relative to the layering, they
may delaminate and break apart.
Schlumberger engineers have incorporated
several solutions to address these concerns in the
Falcon multistage stimulation method for uncemented wells. While testing various ball materials, the engineers also tested seat designs and
discovered that spherical seats far outperformed
typical cone-shaped seats. They also found that a
magnesium alloy was superior to phenolic or
composite ball material.
The lightweight magnesium used in the
Falcon system balls minimizes ball extrusion; in
addition, the balls are temperature insensitive,
ow back intact and do not break on contact with
the seat or during stimulation. They are rated to
68.9 MPa differential pressure and are easily
milled. In one conguration of the Falcon system,
the toe valves have multiple smaller balls that
land in a single seat. These balls are able to easily
pass through the upper seats to reach the lower
sections of the well, but the total ow-through
area remains large enough even at the lowest

increased signicantly; the experiment was

expanded to more than 300 wells.17 But elimination of a coiled tubing intervention to mill out
plugs was one of the original drivers for adopting the ball-and-seat technology, and service
companies have sought to eliminate the possibility of balls staying in place through numerous
methods, including retrievable seats and valves;
like most methods, however, that alternative
also requires a coiled tubing intervention.18
One of the issues with balls not seating or not
oating off the seat after treatment is in the
material used for the ballspredominantly phenolic, composite or metal alloy. These balls must
be light enough to ow out of the well but strong
enough to land in the seat at a high velocity without being deformed or damaged. Some industry
experts believe these lowcompressive strength
balls are breaking before they have a chance to
work. Under pressure, the balls may extrude,
causing them to become stuck in their respective
seats or one of the next seats uphole as they are
owed up the well.
Additionally, some types of these balls are
constructed in layers and have inherent weak-

Openhole
packer

3-in.
frac sleeve

2 1/2-in.
frac sleeve

2-in.
frac sleeve

1 1/2-in.
frac sleeve

> Typical ball-and-seat conguration. Ball-and-seat MSS systems use frac valves, or sleeves, with
seats that decrease in size from heel to toe. This allows the lower valves to be activated by balls (red)
small enough to pass through the upper valves. In long horizontal sections, this can become a problem
as friction pressures increase with wellbore length and decreasing seat diameters.

11. Baihly et al, reference 2.

12. Baihly et al, reference 2.
13. Arguijo AL, Morford L, Baihly J and Aviles I:
Streamlined Completions Process: An Eagle Ford Shale
Case Study, paper SPE 162658, presented at the
SPE Canadian Unconventional Resources Conference,
Calgary, October 30November 1, 2012.
14. Daneshy A: Hydraulic Fracturing of Horizontal Wells:
Issues and Insights, paper SPE 140134, presented at
the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference,
The Woodlands, Texas, USA, January 2426, 2011.

15. Daneshy, reference 14.

16. Baihly et al, reference 2.
17. Wozniak G: Frac Sleeves: Is Milling Them out Worth the
Trouble?, paper SPE 138322, presented at the SPE Tight
Gas Completions Conference, San Antonio, Texas,
November 23, 2010.
18. Grifn J, Barraez R and Campbell S: To Mill or Not to
Mill: A Fully Retrievable Multistage Fracturing System,
paper SPE 163936, presented at the SPE/ICoTA Coiled
Tubing and Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition,
The Woodlands, Texas, March 2627, 2013.

31

point of the well to eliminate the effects of friction pressure on fracture initiation (below). The
material and design of the seats allow them to be
easily and quickly milled.
No Limits
Engineers at Schlumberger have recently developed a variation on ball-activated systems that
may be used in cemented wells. The technique
uses balls or darts to activate sliding sleeves that
provide stage isolation. Because this technique
does not require seats of decreasing diameter to
get the balls to TD, the technique can be used to
stimulate a nearly unlimited number of stages in
a single continuous operation.
The nZone multistage stimulation system
includes a control line connected to sequential
valves that make up part of the completion. To
initiate the stimulation operation, a dart, which
is pumped from the surface, lands on a C-ring
an incomplete circlein the lowermost valve.
The completion engineer then applies pressure
against the dart, which opens the sliding sleeve
and pressurizes the control line. This pressure is
transferred to a piston in the valve immediately
above it, which closes the C-ring, creating an
O-ring with a reduced ID (next page, top).
The rst stage of the stimulation is pumped,
and during the ush stage, another dart is
released. This dart lands on the now-compressed
C-ring, isolating Stage 2 from Stage 1. The resulting increase in pressure forces the sleeve to slide
for Stage 2 and the control line to become pressurized and close the next C-ring, which is then
ready to catch the next isolation dart. Stage 2 is
treated, and during the ush stage, another dart

Single Ball Seat

is pumped. When fracturing operations for all

stages are complete, the well can be produced.
The darts can remain in the well, but to obtain
full wellbore access for future interventions, the
darts must be milled out. Alternatively, the operator can deploy dissolvable darts.
Recently, in an effort to increase production
and reduce completion costs per well, the operator of the Dagang eld in the Huanghua depression of eastern China, which had previously
drilled only vertical wells, changed to horizontal
wells. The rst commercial discovery in this eld
was made in 1963 in the Tertiary Guantao group.
By 1996, this oil-bearing play had expanded to
564 km2 [218 mi2] with proven original oil in
place of 790 million metric tons (t) [5.8 billion
bbl]. This same trend has a proven gas-bearing
area of 104.5 km2 [40.3 mi2] with original gas in
place of 31 billion m3 [1.1 Tcf]. Additionally, the
depression has estimated proven gas condensate
reserves of 7.34 million t [54 million bbl].
Currently, there are 23 oil and gas elds in

19. Hua LG, Kai CH, Fould J, Lee JS, Long WH, Guo ZX,
Aviles I and Baihly J: An Efcient Horizontal Cased Hole
Multistage Stimulation Well: China Case Story, paper
SPE 153339, presented at the SPE Oil and Gas India
Conference and Exhibition, Mumbai, March 2830, 2012.
20. Baihly et al, reference 2.
21. Martin et al, reference 5.

Multiple Ball Seat

1,314

3,359

1,267

2,523

0.875-in. ball seat

~1,300 psi

1,687

1,220

851

1,174

821

Static pressure, psi

Static pressure, psi

~3,400 psi

15

the depression, including 15 oil- and gasproducing elds in 24 development areas in the
Dagang eld. Annual production from this eld
is 4.3 million t [31.4 million bbl] of oil and
380 million m3 [13 Bcf] of gas.
This eld has been traditionally produced
through cased and cemented vertical wells.
Because many wells of this type are required to
produce these relatively low-permeability formations, the economics may be considered marginal despite the large production volumes. The
operator recently set an oil production target
rate for the eld of more than 6,000 t/yr
[44,000 bbl/yr] oil equivalent. Completing wells
quickly and achieving incremental production
gains in each well are the keys to reaching the
operators objective. To do so, engineers must
properly identify and complete as many pay
zones per well as possible using appropriate
technology, including horizontal drilling.
Additionally, the operator calculated that vertical wells in the target formation would produce
an average of 15 m3/d [94 bbl/d] of oil, while
horizontal wells would produce an average
45 m3/d [283 bbl/d] using traditional completion techniques. To increase the return on horizontal wells, and after assessing the plug and
perforate methodology, engineers opted for an
nZone completion that included a rupture disc
valve placed at the toe of the well to expose the
formation for treatment of the rst stage.

Four 0.875-in. ball seats

1,127
1,081

1,657

1,034

2,492

988

3,328

941

> Multiple ball seats. By replacing a single ball-and-seat conguration (bottom left) with multiple seats (photograph, top), the Falcon multiple seat valve
(bottom right) enables the system to use balls small enough to reach and activate the lower valves. The smaller ball size also reduces friction pressure and
pump horsepower requirements as well as wear on the ball seat.

32

Oileld Review

Hydraulic control line to

upper valves and surface

Fracture 3.75-in. internal

ports
diameter

Dart in
sliding sleeve seat

Shifted sleeve

Hydraulic control line

to lower valves

3.25-in. internal
diameter

Open C-ring

Closed circular ring

> Unlimited numbers of stages. Using an nZone valve, operators ready the stage below the valve for
treatment when a ball or dart lands in the seat of the sliding sleeve. Pressure increases in a hydraulic
control line that connects numerous valves. When a lower nZone valve opens, stimulation uids are
pumped into the formation (yellow arrows). Pressure on the hydraulic line shifts a sleeve downward,
causing a C-ring to move into the smaller inner diameter of the valve and form a smaller diameter
circular seat that is ready to receive the next dart or ball to begin the process again. Because the
seats are not in descending size, the process can be repeated for as many stages as are required to
stimulate the entire well.

The horizontal section of the well was completed as a 51/2-in. monobore casing cemented in
an 81/2-in. hole and treated via a four-stage stimulation. The disc valve at the shoe was opened at
3,500 psi [24 MPa] above the casing test pressure, which allowed engineers to test the casing
as part of the cementing operation. After the disc
valve ruptured, which manifested as a sudden
pressure drop observed at the surface, engineers
rst performed a minifracture to determine for-

Stage 1

mation parameters and conrm injectivity into

the rst zone; they followed that with the rst
stimulation stage.
Completion engineers launched a ball from the
surface during ush to isolate the rst stage and
begin Stage 2. When the ball landed in the rst
seat, the pressure increased, and engineers shut
down the pumps. When pumping resumed, a sudden drop in pressure indicated the valve had
opened and the formation was fractured using less

Stage 3

Stage 4

Pressure

Stage 2

8:24

9:36

10:48

12:00

Pressure
Pump rate
Proppant concentration
Fluid volume
Sand weight

13:12

14:24

15:36

16:48

18:00

19:12

Time

> Stimulation treatment. Following the opening of the rupture disc valve to begin the MSS operation in
the Dagang eld in China, fracturing operations started with the treatment of the rst zone. After a full
ush on the rst stage, the rst ball was released into the well. This operation took about 1.5 h per
stage. Once the ball landed on the rst seat (second stage) at about 10:48, the pressure increased
quickly (A), and all pumps were shut down. Pumping resumed, and a sudden drop in pressure indicated
that the valve had opened (B). The pump rate was increased further (C), and the Stage 2 fracture was
initiated. These steps were repeated until all four stages were treated. (Adapted from Hua et al,
reference 19.)

Summer 2013

than 4,800 psi [33 MPa] pressure as measured at

the surface. Engineers attribute this low fracture
pressure to the helical port design of the Falcon
fracture valves. These steps were repeated until all
four stages were stimulated, during which fracture
initiation pressures from Stage 1 to Stage 4 were
5,100, 4,800, 5,800 and 5,500 psi [35, 33, 40 and
38 MPa], respectively (below left). That pressures
were different at each stage is a strong indication
that all four stages were treated.
Unlike most other wells in the area, the treated
well was able to ow back immediately and without articial lift. Production was 8 to 10 times
greater than that of a vertical offset well and was
expected to be triple that of an unstimulated horizontal well. After ve weeks, because ow rates
were higher than those in other wells in the eld,
the operator was able to produce the well using a
less expensive electric submersible pump instead
of a rod pump. Payout from the well in which the
operator used the nZone system was calculated at
two and one-half months in contrast to four
months for the unstimulated horizontal well and
eight months for vertical wells. The operator plans
several more wells using MSS technology.19
Not One Size Fits All
As MSS technology rapidly transitions from
emerging to mature status, the industry remains
uncertain about how best to apply it. Exploiting
liquid-bearing shales and other ultralowpermeability formations is a relatively recent
endeavor, and long-term data are nonexistent.
For example, while engineers have doubled
the length of laterals in the Bakken Shale in the
past decade, the stimulation stage count has
increased 10-fold. At the same time, as lateral
lengths have increased, operators have generally
decreased stage spacing and the amount of proppant and uid pumped per stage. And although
data seem to indicate a limit to the rate of return
on investment from more stages per wellabout
37 stages in the Bakkenlong-term economic
analysis of these plays is currently impossible;
these wells have not been producing for enough
time to generate sufcient data for meaningful
decline curve analysis.20
Similarly, the industry is still learning how to get
the most from the shales. For example, the industry
does not yet fully understand the storage mechanisms of the Eagle Ford Shale and the factors that
differentiate a good producing area from a mediocre
one.21 Only data gathered over time will answer the
economic and reservoir questions of unconventional resources, even as technologies emerge to
take advantage of that knowledge.
RvF

33