Increase in Oil Production: Methodology & Best Practices for Hydraulic Fracturing Candidate Selection and Execution in Assam-Arakan Basin
Authors: Mukku Vinil , Lama Tshering , Verma Sanjay , Kumar Pankaj , Bordeori Krishna , Chatterjee Chandreyi , Kumar Arvind , Mishra Siddharth , Sharma Lovely , Batshas Siddhanta , Shah Arpit , Prasad C. B. , Pathak Digantha , Saikia Partha Protim 
Published: March 2019

Abstract
Hydraulic fracturing can establish well productivity in tight and unconventional reservoirs, accelerate production in low- to-medium permeability wells and revamp production in mature wells. However, not all wells are suitable candidates for hydraulic fracturing and the technique can be detrimental if the right candidate is not chosen. An integrated approach is required to select the wells that are the most-suitable candidates for hydraulic fracturing.
This paper discusses the hydraulic fracturing candidate selection workflow and execution carried out in the year 2015 to 2016, which has unlocked reservoir production potential of Upper Assam basin fields of Oil India Ltd. (OIL). Wells which showed poor/no inflow prior to hydraulic fracturing operations, exceeded operator expectations during post fracturing production. Better reservoir management through hydraulic fracturing, rejuvenated ceased wells with an incremental oil production rates of 1380 bopd cumulative rate from six wells, post fracturing. The candidate analysis workflow described in this paper, can serve as the best practices guide for any operator investigating workover candidates among multiple fields, with an objective of production enhancement.
A customized candidate selection methodology was developed to identify the 10 best candidates from a pool of 70 vertical/deviated wells in two phases of the hydraulic fracturing campaign. In the absence of dynamic reservoir analysis, offset well data analysis assisted in filling the data gaps by enabling geological and reservoir level understanding. Well production models were calibrated with the production history, geo-mechanical models were prepared and used in the fracture modelling to generate optimum fracture geometry and predict post-fracturing production. Wells were ranked according to incremental hydrocarbon production coupled with risk factors including completions integrity. In the execution, fracturing model was validated by performing fracturing diagnostics tests such as Step Rate and Minifrac injection. The final calibrated model was then used to design the optimum fracturing treatment. Given the age of wells and traditional completions architecture, best practices were developed to counter challenges of high pressures and rate limitations in wells with depth greater than 3500 m.
As stimulations and well preparation in completed wells are expensive, it was critical to identify the most-suitable candidates with the available dataset before attempting well preparation and further acquisition. This was addressed through a customized workflow to perform production rate transient analysis for reservoir dynamic flow properties, create synthetic geomechanical models for stress profile & fracture vertical growth estimation.