Hydraulic Fracturing Technologies

Oklahoma Unconventional Resources Forum, December 13, 2011

Randy F. LaFollette
Director, Applied Reservoir Technology
Baker Hughes Pressure Pumping

2010 Baker Hughes Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

 Introduction: Hydraulic Fracturing Technologies
Why fracture unconventional reservoirs?
The toolbox: Fracturing Materials
Fluids
Chemical additives
Proppants
Energizing gases
Fracture Stimulation Models and Validation
Environmental Issues
Environmentally responsible materials
Fracturing product line trends
Priority pollutants
Disclosure
Seven ways to mess up your $100 Million shale investment

2 2010 Baker Hughes Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

What is a shale reservoir, anyway?

From geoscience, shale is:

Siliciclastic rock
Mainly clay-sized particles
Fissile
May have a wide-range of mineralogy
Mudstones are also called shale (Barnett Shale)
Lack fissility, otherwise same particle size range and very
similar to true shale
But
Bakken Shale is actually a shale-sourced reservoir where
the carrier bed is either Dolo or Sts / Vfg Sst
Shale reservoir challenges
Really low-K rock
Variable thermal maturity
Variable wettability
Geohazards in some shales
Operational tempo in shales requires rapid learning or money is
wasted
Lack of adequate reservoir characterization
Difficulty of distinguishing between operations cause and effect
Few large and complete well data sets with long production history
Small well count / large variable count experiments require advanced
statistical methods to be reliable
Anecdotal evidence should be viewed very skeptically
Social challenges
Why do unconventional reservoirs need to be hydraulically
fractured?

Extremely low permeability drives the fundamental rate

equation
Production from drilled and unstimulated bore holes in
most shale and tight gas Sst reservoirs is uneconomic
For reserves to have value, they must be recoverable in
short time periods to recover cost of investment and turn a
profit
Natural production rates are unacceptably low
At present, hydraulic fracturing is the only acceptable
means of economically accessing shale reserves
Goals of Hydraulic Fracturing

Minimize cost / mcf or cost / bbl of production

Increase production rate above that of the undamaged

formation in radial flow
Increase hydrocarbon recovery (reserves)
Bypass near well bore formation damage (skin)
Happy result of the fracturing process
Much more critical in high permeability / high mobility
conventional reservoirs
Hydraulic Fracturing places equivalent of 4-lane highways
into low permeability rock volumes
After the trucks are rigged down and headed out

What have you really purchased?

The proppant pack

What happens to everything else?

Everything else goes away*

*Exception is scale inhibitors placed with the proppant

Fracturing fluid: Use and Function

Used to break down the rock, create fracture volume,

create surface area, and transport proppant
Then it needs to be gotten out of the way

Transmit energy to the formation to split the rock

Pressure and rate
Create desired fracture geometry
Transport proppant
Through tubulars, completion, near-wellbore, fracture
Criteria for Fracturing Fluids (1)

Safe
Environmentally friendly
Cost effective
Cost of materials
Cost of transportation to location
Cost of mixing
Cost of pumping (Low friction)
Cost of disposal
Easy to prepare

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Criteria for Fracturing Fluids (2)

Adequate viscosity to create required fracture width

Able to transport proppant into the fracture
Stable during fracturing treatment
Adequate fluid loss control
Compatible with formation fluids
Compatible with formation minerals
Easily recovered from the formation

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Fracturing Fluid = Base Fluid + Additives + Proppant
Basic Fracturing Fluid Materials (1)
Base fluids (make-up fluids)
Water, oil
Energizing gases used to aid in fracturing fluid recovery
CO2 or N2 or both
Gelling agents viscosifiers used to thicken fracturing
fluids (1s to 10s of centipoise) to improve fluid efficiency
and proppant transport
Guar gum or modified guar gum
Crosslinkers used to super-thicken fracturing fluids
(100s to 1000s of centipoise)
Friction reducers used in Slick Water fracs to reduce
friction losses in pipe while injecting fracturing fluids
Basic Fracturing Fluid Materials (2)
Breakers used to reduce viscosity of fracturing fluids
after the treatment to allow fluids to more easily flow out
of the formation for recovery
Surfactants and non-emulsifiers
Surfactants reduce surface tension aid in fluid recovery
Non-emulsifiers prevent treatment fluid and reservoir liquids
from emulsifying
Temporary clay control agents prevent clay
swelling and minimize migration of clay fines
1 7% KCl
TMAC (Clay Treat 3C)
Choline Chloride (Clay Treat 2C)
Basic Fracturing Fluid Materials (3)

Biocides kill bacteria in fracturing fluid make-up

waters
Used to minimize souring of reservoirs resulting from
injection of contaminated surface water
Used to prevent bacteria in make-up water from
destroying gelling agents before the treatment can be
pumped
Gelling agent = bug food
 Crosslinked Polymer
Base water thickened with linear gel

Crosslinked gel

Crosslinked gel carrying proppant

 ShaleXcelTM Fluid Systems
Proprietary system designed to crosslink rapidly for efficient proppant
transport thru the pumps, horizontal wellbores, and injection into
reservoir prior to reverting to a low viscosity fluid.

Short-lived high viscosity fluid system

Low loading Borate-crosslinked guar (GW-2)
Good proppant transport from blender into formation
Low viscosity for complex fracture network development
Non-damaging to fracture conductivity (> 90% regain)

Improves operational reliability by prolonging pumping equipment life

and improves stimulation effectiveness by facilitating complex fracture
network development.
 Hydrocarbon-Based (Non-Aqueous)
Systems

HSE issues and expensive. Not used in shale fracturing.

Energized vs Non-Energized Fracturing
Fluids
Energized fluids are fracturing fluids mixed with
compressed gas, usually either CO2 or N2
Advantages
Provide a substantial portion of the energy required to
recover the fluid
Places much less water on water-sensitive formations
Disadvantages
Not possible to place high proppant concentrations in the
fracture
Ultra-high Quality Foam System
Ideal for water-sensitive and/or low-pressure gas reservoirs
No polymer residue (used Liquid LiteProp technology)
No formation damage
Disposal eliminated
High energy for ease of flowback
Quicker tie into pipelines
Less location remediation
VaporFracTM System (Patents pending)
Slick Water vs Crosslinked Gel?

Slick Water
Lower cost
Equally effective in Barnett
May not effectively break down extremely difficult formations
Doesnt transport proppant uphill; most or all proppant left
below the level of the horizontal well bore
Crosslinked Gel
Higher cost
Used to break down difficult formations
Props thick zones to almost full vertical height
What are the material proportions in a Slickwater Treatment?

Typical slickwater for shale frac

Friction Reducer, FRW-16, 1.0 gpt

Chemicals
Biocide, Magnacide 575, 0.25 gpt
Clay Control, ClayTreat 2C, 1 gpt Water
Surfactant, FloBack Prime, 1 gpt Proppant
Proppant, Sand, 0.5 lb/gal

Water = 94.1%
Proppant = 5.6%
Chemical Additives = 0.3%
What Do We Want The Proppant To Do?
Types of Proppant

Ottawa Frac Sand LitePropTM 108 ULWP Low Density Ceramic

Brown Frac Sand Resin-Coated Sand Sintered Bauxite

See Section 8-8 for a full

discussion on proppant selection
Proppant Selection Considerations
Proppant Selection Considerations
 Proppant Application Ranges
20/40, 2 lb/ft2 - Minimum 500 md-ft

LiteProp 108
Liteprop 125
Brown Sand
White Sand
Regular RC Sand
Premium RC Sand
LW Ceramic
RC LW Ceramic
ISP
Sintered Bauxite

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000
Proppants Pumped Haynesville Shale (LA)

AcFrac Black Plus 20/40 PR-Black 20/40

AcFrac Black Plus 40/70 Sand White 100 mesh
Atlas PRC Premium Sand White 20/40
40/70 SinterBall Bauxite 30/50
Atlas PRC 20/40 Sinterball 20/40
CARBOHYDROPROP SinterBlast 50/120 mesh
40/80 SinterLite Bauxite 20/40
Carboprop 16/30 SinterLite Bauxite 30/50
Carboprop 20/40 Tempered HS 20/40
Econoprop 20/40 Tempered HS 40/70
Econoprop 30/50 VersaProp 18/40
Interprop 20/40 TerraProp Plus 40/70
Interprop 30/50 TerraProp Plus 20/40
Proppant Transport Conundrum
Seek to place proppant across maximum created
fracture area
Less dense proppants are easier to transport
Trade-off is typically insufficient strength
Smaller diameter proppants are easier to transport
Trade-off is much reduced permeability
Increased fluid viscosity can improve transport
Tradeoff is damage from fluid residuals
Increasing fluid Specific Gravity can improve transport
Tradeoff may be difficulty recovering load fluid
 Ultra-Lightweight Proppants
Ultra-light weight greatly improves
proppant transport, providing
improved effective fracture length
than achieved with conventional
proppants
Approaches neutral buoyancy in
fresh water, enabling placement of
a proppant partial monolayer with
high conductivity
 Proppant Transport
Reduced density proppants (ultra-lightweight) improve
proppant transport and placement for increased propped
fracture length and enhanced conductive fracture area

Ellip-cal Geom.(3:1), 0.25 width, Injec-on Rate 1 bbl/E, 3 cp

31
SPE 106312
Conductivity vs. Closure Stress
Proppant Packs vs. Partial Monolayer

SPE-119385
32
Proppant Pack Damage Mechanisms

Proppant crushing
Function of closure stress exceeding crush resistance of the
material
Max closure stress on proppant estimated as:
Closure stress = BHFP Fracture face flowing pressure
Proppant embedment
A function of Brinell Hardness of the fracture wall as well as
type of proppant placed
Proppant diagenesis
Includes inorganic scaling and diagenetic reactions that may
weaken the proppant
 Embedment Damage

Spalling
Proppant embedment ranges from
minimal in hard formations to
typically as much a grain diameter
in soft formations

Damage from embedment is two-fold:

width loss and fines
 Effect of Fluids on Proppant: Flow Back Water
Dramatic scale deposits on all
proppant types
CaCO3
CaSO4
SiO2
Calcium and magnesium silicate
precipitates precipitated in test
bombs
Only 40/70 ISP showed
significant strength loss

SPE 131782, SPE 140110

Hydraulic Fracture Modeling in Unconventional
Reservoirs
Current Bi-wing fracturing models

Orthogonally gridded models

Complex crack-propagation models

Copy & paste models

MShaleTM Discrete Fracture Network Simulator

MShale is a Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) simulator for

predicting fracture extent in fractured and naturally fractured
reservoirs. The 3D numerical simulator is designed to model
multiple, cluster/complex/swarm, and discrete fractures in shale
formations.
Why Microseismic Monitoring?
Environmental Disclosure
Fully supported by Baker Hughes
Legacy BJ
NY State Dept of Environmental Conservation Study
Comprehensive fracturing chemicals list
Working with Wyoming, Pennsylvania, & EPA
Other governments, e.g., Australia
US Congress Energy & Commerce Committee
Endorsing GWPC / IOGCC pumping chemicals registry
Frac Focus (fracfocus.org)
Operators supplying data to the registry
Texas, probably Feb 2012 start
Oklahoma, similar reporting requirements as Texas, later in 2012
27 slightly different sets of state rules?
Environmental Disclosure
Environmental Success

Removing priority pollutants from the product line,

counting all chemical products except the bulk materials
90% achieved
Expect 95% achievement by next year
Corrosion inhibitors remain a difficult issue
347 operators / 16,500 treatments using SmartCareTM
environmentally responsible fracturing fluid systems
beginning in 2010
Field Operations

Everyone looking at improving field logistics

One focus area for BHI Pressure Pumping
Bulk chemicals
Isotainers / Isotanks
Tankers
Replaces 14 totes / meters / liquid-add pumps
Less risk of spills
New bi-fuel engines ordered for field testing
Liquid fuel / Nat Gas
Seven Sure-Fire Ways to Mess Up Your Companys
$100M Shale Play Investment
Assume that all locations within a shale basin are comprised of
identical rocks with the same production potential
Lease your acreage late after the first movers have already leased the
sweet spots and driven cost up exponentially
Never spend any money on science wells
Do not run a pilot study to determine whether your acreage can be
expected to yield production rates that will be profitable
Blindly follow completion and stimulation practices from offset
operators and never run field demonstration experiments to optimize
your engineering practices
Do not use any biocide in your fracturing fluids it costs money
Put maximum draw-down on all shale wells, following the ancient oil
field wisdom that You cant mess up a good well!
 Summary: Hydraulic Fracturing Technologies
Why fracture unconventional reservoirs?
The toolbox: Fracturing Materials
Fluids
Chemical additives
Proppants
Energizing gases
Fracture Stimulation Models and Validation
Environmental Issues
Environmentally responsible materials
Fracturing product line trends
Priority pollutants
Disclosure
Seven ways to mess up your $100 Million shale investment

44 2010 Baker Hughes Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

Thank You!