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This is the Hydraulic Fracturing Technical Section of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
This technical section encompasses the subject of hydraulic fracturing technology through online events, online networking, workshops, conferences, and by promoting diversity in the industry.
The purpose of this section shall be to provide a forum from which technical professionals and academia can:
  • Share knowledge, experience, and best practices
  • Identify major issues and technology areas on which to focus cooperation and discussions
  • Maintain and promote industry awareness of related issues and technologies
  • Enhance their own technical competencies that meet the needs of the petroleum industry
We will accomplish our mission through the transfer of knowledge at study groups, monthly meetings, forums, and workshops.
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HyFTS March Webinar Coming Up

Please join us for our SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technical Section Webinar!

HyFTS Webinar (March 10, 2026, 12:00 PM – 01:15 PM CST)

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gGQ_5yFb

Keynote Speaker: Karn Agarwal, Senior Staff Engineer, Liberty Energy

Title: Using Deep Learning to Forecast Fracture Treating Pressures in Real Time.

Abstract:

Achieving operational efficiencies by increasing throughput for every pump hour is becoming increasingly important in present day frac operations. With frac operations evolving into industrial scale involving multi-well pads and hundreds of stages per pad, even small incremental gains can add up to significant savings. 

Automation of pumping operations by maximizing rate while staying within working pressure limits is one of the ways to increase operational efficiency and throughput. This in turn can be aided by reliable models to forecast and predict treating pressures sufficiently into the future so that the rate schedule can be optimized.

We present a flexible deep learning approach to forecast surface treating pressures based on a variety of relevant inputs. Primary inputs include time series data for past treatment history as well as future design. In addition, the model can incorporate stage level completion details, and rock properties data from logs and drilling data. The model objective is to forecast the cumulative change in treating pressure a specified time into the future.

Results from training the model on actual historical treatment data are presented as well as considerations on how it might be applied in a real-time scenario. The approach allows for the model to be trained on thousands of stages with the resulting trained model that can be used in the larger framework of automation.

The work could be extended to predict screen-outs or problem stages ahead of time or easily modified for other applications such as real-time visualization.

Bio:

Karn Agarwal is a Senior Staff Engineer at Liberty Energy, where he has been a member of the technical engineering team for 10 years, focusing on data science and frac & reservoir modeling. Before joining Liberty, he spent 4 years with Halliburton working on Hydraulic fracture diagnostics in all major US unconventional plays. He holds a MS in Analytics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in Petroleum Engineering from University of Texas at Austin and B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee.   

Thank you to e-Frac® for sponsoring!

PAST WEBINAR RECORDINGS AVAILABLE HERE


 
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UPCOMING SPE EVENTS 2026

  • SPE Workshop: Well Completions for Unconventional Resource Development Optimization and Parent-Child Interaction: 26ASAN
  • SPE Workshop: Drilling and Completions - Optimizing for Tomorrow, Driving Efficiency Today: 26WDC1
  • SPE/AAPG/SEG Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC): 26URTC

Please visit SPE Events Calender  for full list of events worldwide.

RECENT EVENTS

HyFTS Networking Reception took place at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference held in February 2026, The Woodlands, Texas.

Keynote Speaker was Kyle Haustveit, Assistant Secretary, Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office.   

Awards and recognitions were presented at the reception.

At the Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference (HFTC) 2026 the Stephen A. Holditch Opening Plenary Keynote was given by Chris Wright, United States Secretary of Energy.  

2026 Legend of Hydraulic Fracturing presented to Dr. Bob Barree 

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