Oil and Gas
Oil and Gas | Production Engineering
Shale Gas and Shale Oil Completions Using Multi-Staged Fracturing and Horizontal Wells
The course introduces basic shale candidate selection using petrophysical, geochemical and petroleum engineering information, then adds detailed practical knowledge of well planning, construction, stimulation, production and finally environmental conservation. It provides explanations, theory and practical understanding designed to recognize and build commercial completions and uses gas and oil play case histories from five commercial North American shales: Barnett, Eagle Ford, Gothic, Horn River and Marcellus.
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Schedule
Duration and Training Method
This is a two-day classroom course consisting of classroom lectures, construction examples and group exercises with field frac examples.
Course Overview
Learning Outcomes
Participants will learn to:
- Assess general gas and oil production potential of candidate shale reservoirs.
- Select limiting factors in shale hydrocarbon production such as faults, regional fractures, fluid saturations, natural fractures and frac barriers.
- Estimate potential for initial production and decline rates.
- Formulate a shale gas development plan using multi-well pads and simple facilities.
- Design a well completion suitable for pressure containment and multi-stage fracturing.
- Select frac stages from logs and locate perforation clusters for effective hydraulic diversion.
- Design and execute a fracture stimulation.
- Develop flowback limits to effectively recover load fluids and preserve well energy for unloading water.
- Select the basic production equipment for the well.
- Supervise effective water use and flow back management.
Course Content
Shales are the most abundant sedimentary rock and many, but not all, contain commercial quantities of gas and/or hydrocarbon liquids. Shales offer thousands of tcf of gas and hundreds of millions of barrels of oil as reserves, but they require careful selection and special stimulation methods to achieve commercial production and returns. The role of technology is critical in improving recoverable fluids.
Topics Covered
- Assess General Gas and Oil Production Potential and Select Limiting Factors in Shale Hydrocarbon Production
- Estimate Potential for Initial Production and Decline
- Geologic Impacts – Mapping – From Macro to Micro
- Formulate Shale Development – Multi-Well Pads & Facilities
- Design A Well Completion - based on life of well containment
- Completion Type
- Select Frac & Perf Stages from Logs, Set Hydraulic Diversion
- Design a Frac Stimulation, Identify Pressure Trends & Flags
- Pumping the Frac
- Necessary Chemicals
- Special Frac Topics
- Flowback Strategy
- Production
- Develop an Effective Water Use and Recycling Strategy
- Shale Frac Risk
- Air Emission Reductions
Who Should Attend and Prerequisites
The course is designed for mid level engineers and managers.
Instructors
George King
Background
George E. King is a Registered Professional Engineer with over 39 years oilfield experience since starting with Amoco in 1971. His technical background includes basic research on energized fracturing, acidizing, asphaltenes, perforating cleanup, complex formations (North Sea chalk, San Juan coal, Alaskan and Canadian heavy/viscous oil, US tight gas, GoM Deep Water, and Niobrara shale), unconventional resources (Tier 1, 2 and 3 Barnett shale completions) sand control, low pressure gas wells and applications work on coiled tubing, perforating, tubular cutoff, formation damage and well repair operations.
Technical accomplishments include 60 technical papers, a book on completions and workovers, Distinguished Lecturer on foam fracturing for the SPE during 1985-86, and a Completions Course Lecturer in the SPE Short Course series in 1999. Industry positions held include Technical Chairman of the 1992 SPE Annual Fall Meeting, past API subcommittee chair on perforating, eleven years adjunct professor at the University of Tulsa (teaching senior level and graduate credit well completions and fracturing courses at night), and numerous SPE committees on forums, paper selection committees and Applied Technology workshops. Awards include the Amoco Vice President’s Award for technology from Amoco in 1997, API service award in 1994, and the 2004 SPE Production Operations Award.
Affiliations and Accreditation
MSc University of Tulsa - Petroleum Engineering
BSc University of Tulsa - Chemical Engineering
BSc Oklahoma State - Chemistry
Courses Taught
N250: Evaluation Methods for Shale Gas Reservoirs
N944: Shale Gas and Shale Oil Completions Using Multi-Staged Fracturing and Horizontal Wells