Monthly Meeting: Hydraulic Fracture Treatments - Kumar Ramurthy (6/19/13)

When:  Jun 19, 2013 from 11:30 AM to 01:00 PM (CT)
Associated with  Dallas Section

Speaker:  Dr. Muthukumarappan "Kumar" Ramurthy, Halliburton
                    

Title: "Surface-Area vs. Conductivity-Type Fracture Treatments in Shale Reservoirs"


Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing continues to be the primary mechanism to produce hydrocarbons out of the tight shale reservoirs. Ever since the success of Barnett shale program, operators are inclined to pump similar large volume water fracture treatments with little or no proppants in their respective shale plays. This assumes that all shale plays are the same and react accordingly to large volume treatments. The basic objective behind such treatments is to contact large surface area, which has been very successful in the Barnett shale play. Such large volume treatments in other shale plays may not be an optimized solution for the specific shale attributes and the response may lead to uneconomical production results. Some shales based on their reservoir characteristics might require a conductivity type fracture treatment. So, it is important to understand the characteristics of these shales before deciding the stimulation treatments. In addition to core and log analysis of these shales, fluid sensitivity tests, Brinell hardness tests, unpropped fracture conductivity tests and more importantly a Diagnostic Fracture Injection Test (DFIT) can help define the guidelines for choosing between a surface area and a conductivity type fracture treatment.

Integrating the various data sources is important in arriving at these guidelines. The main objective of this paper is to provide these guidelines along with examples such that costly trial and error approach for stimulating shales can be avoided. Examples from both oil and gas shales namely, the Gothic, Haynesville, Eagle Ford and Barnett shale plays in the USA are included in this work.

Biography

Dr. Muthukumarappan “Kumar” Ramurthy is Halliburton’s Technology Manager for the Rockies, West Coast and Alaska. He has more than 14 years of conventional and unconventional reservoir and stimulation engineering experience with Halliburton. He has authored several SPE papers and is a co-author of “Coalbed Methane-Principles and Practices” a CBM book that was published in 2008. Also as co-author, he taught the course “Unconventional Reservoir Stimulation: CBM and Shales” to the oil and gas industry in the USA, Canada, India, Indonesia and Australia.
He has served in several SPE technical committees and is currently the Chairman for the SPE Denver Section. He also serves as a technical editor for the SPE Production and Operations Journal. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from India, M. S. in Petroleum Engineering from Mississippi State University and his doctorate in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Wyoming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Location

Ellison Miles Institute, Brookhaven College
3939 Valley View Lane, Building H
Farmers Branch, TX
United States
Registration Early Bird Regular
Member $20.00 $20.00
Non-member/Guest $25.00 $25.00
Student $10.00 $10.00

Contact

Ana Trevino

atrevino@demac.com