Background:

Oil and gas companies continue to live in an environment of lower oil prices and have a sustained need for innovation in the drilling and completion process. Specifically, the cost of completing a well is often the largest portion of capital. Decisions made during well completions can have long-lasting impacts on the production and economic performance of a well.

Completions as a process runs from the end of drilling to the point that a well is ready to tie-in into a production system. The activities in that sequence rely on planning and engineering decisions made weeks or months beforehand, combined with the engineering knowledge and decision criteria of the engineers on site. A wide variety of equipment and materials are involved: casing, downhole tools, cementing, wireline, coiled tubing, pressure pumping units, flowback equipment, and production tie-in. There are also many variations and scenarios of value-added activities that could occur in this part of the process, some planned and some unplanned.

Mechanical innovations, materials science improvements, and the disruption of legacy processes are driving gains in cost and capital efficiencies. These engineering and process innovations are complimented by digital and information focused solutions, which together have the transformational potential to maintain onshore unconventional E&P’s competitive advantage in the new global energy balance. Our scouting and research efforts are focused on exposing the most novel and unique innovations that add value to well completions in the oil and gas industry.

Study Scope:

The study will be focused on the most novel and unique innovations that drive impactful solutions to completion operations:

DOWNHOLE TOOLS

• Downhole Fracturing Systems: Plug & Perf, Ball and Seat, Coiled Tubing sleeve, etc.
• Isolation Efficiency: Packers, plugs, and cement
• High Performance Perforation Tools

MATERIALS SCIENCE/FLUID INNOVATION

• Fluid Chemistry: As it applies to water compatibility and enhanced reservoir contact (i.e. friction reducers, nano technology)
• Novel Proppant Design: Micro or coated proppants
• Temporary Diverters: Degradable solids, ball sealers, pods, etc.

MODELING/ANALYTICS

• Completion Design Optimization: Design and execution process via sensors, data management and automation
• Field Development: Well spacing, sweet spot, and landing zone selection

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION

• Zonal contribution, cluster efficiency, cross-well interference (tracers, logs, intervention tools)
• Microseismic, fiber optic, and resistivity based methods for geomechanical property determination and fracture analysis

SURFACE OPERATIONS

• Novel Equipment & Techniques: to reduce fracture stage cycle time and improve Fleet efficiency and power consumption