Oil and Gas

Oil and Gas | Production Engineering

Shale Gas and Shale Oil Completions Using Multi-Staged Fracturing and Horizontal Wells

Course Code: N944
Instructors:  George King
Course Outline:  Download
Format and Duration:
2 days

Summary

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.

Feedback

Best Nautilus course taught yet thanks to the instructor.

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

Participants will learn to:

  1. Assess general gas and oil production potential of candidate shale reservoirs. 
  2. Select limiting factors in shale hydrocarbon production such as faults, regional fractures, fluid saturations, natural fractures and frac barriers.
  3. Estimate potential for initial production and decline rates.
  4. Formulate a shale gas development plan using multi-well pads and simple facilities.
  5. Design a well completion suitable for pressure containment and multi-stage fracturing.
  6. Select frac stages from logs and locate perforation clusters for effective hydraulic diversion.
  7. Design and execute a fracture stimulation.
  8. Develop flowback limits to effectively recover load fluids and preserve well energy for unloading water.
  9. Select the basic production equipment for the well.
  10. Supervise effective water use and flow back management.

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 

  1. Assess General Gas and Oil Production Potential and Select Limiting Factors in Shale Hydrocarbon Production
  2. Estimate Potential for Initial Production and Decline
  3. Geologic Impacts – Mapping – From Macro to Micro
  4. Formulate Shale Development – Multi-Well Pads & Facilities
  5. Design A Well Completion - based on life of well containment
  6. Completion Type
  7. Select Frac & Perf Stages from Logs, Set Hydraulic Diversion
  8. Design a Frac Stimulation, Identify Pressure Trends & Flags
  9. Pumping the Frac
  10. Necessary Chemicals
  11. Special Frac Topics
  12. Flowback Strategy
  13. Production
  14. Develop an Effective Water Use and Recycling Strategy
  15. Shale Frac Risk
  16. Air Emission Reductions

The course is designed for mid level engineers and managers.

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

CEU: 1.4 Continuing Education Units
PDH: 14 Professional Development Hours
Certificate: Certificate Issued Upon Completion
RPS is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU. We comply with the ANSI/IACET Standard, which is recognised internationally as a standard of excellence in instructional practices.
We issue a Certificate of Attendance which verifies the number of training hours attended. Our courses are generally accepted by most professional licensing boards/associations towards continuing education credits. Please check with your licensing board to determine if the courses and certificate of attendance meet their specific criteria.