Impact of Completion Design and Interwell Communication on Well Performance in Full Section Development: A STACK Case Study Using DNA Based Diagnostics
Authors: Sawadogo Jordan , Haggerty Matthew , Mallory CharLee , Huchton Jake , DeAngelis Whitney , Price Courtney 
Published: October 2020

The STACK (Sooner Trend Anadarko Canadian and Kingfisher counties) is a prolific multi-target stacked play in Oklahoma. Development challenges in the STACK are underpinned by fieldwide geological heterogeneities, including variable reservoir quality throughout the Sycamore-Meramec and Woodford formations and the presence of natural fractures and dense laminations. This case study examines the operator's first fully co-developed section in Canadian County, which comprised of 11 wells across 4 targets. This project was undertaken after de-risking much of the geological uncertainty in several offset pads.

The data acquisition program was designed to assess the impact of total completion design including: interwell spacing, targeting, and wine-rack configuration on well-to-well connectivity and well performance in full section development. Within the section, half of the wells were drilled with the same spacing as offset pads and the other half were downspaced. On both sides of the section, similar targets received the same hydraulic fracturing design. Given it was the operator's first full section development in the county, the operator utilized an advanced data acquisition program that included downhole pressure gauges, chemical tracers, and DNA based diagnostics. DNA diagnostics proved especially useful in measuring the relative contribution from the multiple strata between landing zones, which would not have otherwise been possible. Although the previous offset pilot pads were developed with similar spacing and completion parameters, there were significant differences between average production profiles, with higher initial production (IP-180) observed in the full section.

This paper evaluates these production differences by examining the impact of well spacing/targeting, completion design, and interwell communication on well performance in full section development. Well performance was assessed by integrating production, pressure, and tracer data, along with DNA based diagnostics. DNA diagnostics played a key role in assessing and monitoring the duration of interwell communication between offset wells across the section. Results from this integrated approach demonstrated that full section well performance was impacted by completion design and interwell communication in three notable ways: 1) interbench co-development significantly increased communication across perceived deterrents to fracture growth, 2) well-to-well communication was influenced by completion order, and 3) aggregate interwell communication was higher in full section development than in pilot pads, which may have contributed to the full section initially outperforming pre-drill expectations.

The differences in well performance and well-to-well connectivity carry important implications for operators who plan to use partial spacing tests to develop multi-target full sections. Specifically, these observations underscore the potential for similar completion designs to yield materially different well performances between full section and 1 to 3 well pad development. These results also demonstrate the ability of DNA based diagnostics to accelerate learnings in full section development, which may have otherwise required additional CAPEX to test via heuristic techniques.