New Friction Reducer Boosters Enhance Friction Reduction and Proppant Transport: Case Studies - Superlaterals

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Xu ◽  
James Ogle ◽  
Todd Collier ◽  
Ian Straffin ◽  
Teddy Dubois ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Friction Reduction ◽  
Proppant Transport ◽  
Friction Reducer

High Performance Friction Reducer for Slickwater Fracturing Applications: Laboratory Study and Field Implementation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Al-Hulail ◽  
Oscar Arauji ◽  
Ali AlZaki ◽  
Mohamed Zeghouani
Keyword(s):  
Drag Reduction ◽  
Polymer Concentration ◽  
Sewage Water ◽  
Friction Reduction ◽  
Proppant Transport ◽  
Viscosity Measurements ◽  
Lower Viscosity ◽  
Treated Sewage ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Friction Reducer

Abstract Proppant placement in a tight formation is extremely challenging. Therefore, using a high viscous friction reducer (HVFR) as a fracturing fluid for stimulation treatment in tight gas reservoirs is increasing within the industry because it can transport proppant, help reduce pipe friction generated during hydraulic-fracturing treatments, and efficiently clean up similar to the lower viscosity friction reducers (FRs). In this paper the implementation of the robust HVFR that is building higher viscosity at low concentrations, which minimizes energy loss and promotes turbulent flow within the pipe during the pumping of low viscosity, is discussed in detail. Performance evaluation of the new HVFR was conducted in the laboratory and compared to the lower viscosity FR. The study consisted of viscosity measurements at 70 and 180°F, compatibility with other additives, and proppant transport capabilities. Additionally, the viscosity generated from both FRs was compared using two water sources: water well A and treated sewage water. Viscosity measurements were performed across a wide range of FR and HVFR concentrations and under varying shear rates using a digital viscometer. To validate drag reduction capabilities for this HVFR in the field, the same groundwater with low salinity and low total dissolved solids (TDS) content were used for comparison purposes. The test plan for this new HVFR was for a well to be drilled to a total depth of 17,801 ft MD (10,693 ft TVD) with a 6,016-ft lateral section. Another part of the plan was to complete 41 stages—the first stage with the toe initiator, and subsequent stages using ball drops until Stage 8, were completed using the current FR. For Stage 8, the drag reduction from the new HVFR was evaluated against the current FR only during the pad stage. Then, FR or HVFR concentrations were used, with a gradual reduction from 2 to 1 gpt without compromising proppant placement from stages 9 to 37, alternating current FR and the new HVFR every four stages. From Stage 38 to 41, the same approach was used but with treated sewage water and alternating every other stage using current FR or HVFR at 1gpt. The implementation of the new HVFR showed better friction reduction when using the same concentration of the current FR. Also, achieving better average treating pressures with lower concentration. Based on that it is a cost-effective solution and the performance is better, this lead to reduce the HVFR volume to be pumped per stage compared to the current FR. Applications/Significance/Novelty For this study, drag reduction capabilities for this new HVFR were validated in the field at higher pumping rate conditions, potentially optimizing (reducing) the polymer concentration during a freshwater application. It was shown that lower concentrations of this HVFR provided higher viscosity, which helps improve proppant transport and operation placement.

Critical Examination of Variables Effecting Friction Loop Results for Friction Reducer Selection

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Aften ◽  
Yaser Asgari ◽  
Lee Bailey ◽  
Gene Middleton ◽  
Farag Muhammed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Rate ◽  
Performance Testing ◽  
Loop System ◽  
Friction Reduction ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Flow Loop ◽  
Designed Experiments ◽  
Recirculating Flow ◽  
Run Lengths ◽  
Friction Reducer

Abstract Friction reducer evaluations for field application selection are conducted in laboratory benchtop recirculating flow loops or once-through systems. Industry standard procedures and benchtop flow loop (loop) system specifications for friction reduction assessment are nonexistent, though standardization efforts are recently documented. Research and papers correlating friction reducer performance to brine and additives have been published, however other key variables can significantly affect performance and therefore must be addressed to maximize product recommendation accuracy. This paper illustrates how variances affect results. Benchtop recirculating loops used for testing friction reduction products for a specific field's application vary significantly in system components, configurations, and test analyses. Crucial loop system variance examples include differing pipe diameters, pump configurations, flow meter types and placement, differential pressure section and full run lengths, reservoir designs, mixing conditions, and end performance calculations. Oil and gas producers and service companies are trending towards outsourcing friction reducers to independent testing laboratories for loop assessment results prior to recommending friction reducers for end use field applications. These recommendations may have inherent selection bias depending upon the loop system's components and configuration. Friction reduction calculations during loop testing do not consistently consider changes in viscosity and temperature, thereby altering absolute results when evaluating performance. To apply the simplified assumptions in standard pressure, drop methodology, equivalency in flow rate, density, viscosity, and temperature within the run must be maintained. Performance of the friction reducer in a specific brine and additive test run should primarily be dependent upon dosage and method of injecting friction reducer into the loop, however other variables can contribute to performance results. We presume equivalency in pipe roughness and proper loop cleansing. The effects of these variables on friction reduction response applying wide-ranging factors of flowrate, density, viscosity, and temperature are evaluated using designed experiments with responses plotted and illustrated in Cartesian and contour graphs. The result of these designed experiments identified that certain variables are more influential on friction reducers’ measured performances in standard loop experiments and require observation and documentation during performance testing. The final study in this work generated vastly different performance curves when all of the aspects of loop design, entry and differential run lengths, flow rate, injection method, friction reducer types and loadings, and brine types, densities, viscosities, and temperatures were held constant. The goal of benchtop loop testing is scaling for actual field applications. Scaling discrepancies persist however due to differing pipe diameters, fluid circuit designs, and pump types and rates combined with changing brine compositions, proppant, and chemical additive effects on friction reducer products. Understanding that different benchtop loops, or potentially the same benchtop loop, will generate differing results is intriguing, yet unsettling.

8070 Miles from the Field to the Lab and Back: A Pragmatic Sequencing of Laboratory and Field-Based Fluid Testing and QAQC, A Case History from Sichuan Region, China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.. Casero ◽  
A.. Gomaa ◽  
J.. Ronderos ◽  
K.. Cawiezel ◽  
W. J. Giffin
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Laboratory Testing ◽  
Fluid Velocity ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Effective Field ◽  
Friction Reduction ◽  
Proppant Transport ◽  
Field Laboratory ◽  
Successful Execution ◽  
Sichuan Region

Abstract The application of high viscosity friction reducers (HVFRs) in unconventional plays has steadily increased over the past years, not only as alternatives to conventional friction reducers (FRs) but also as a direct replacement for the use of guar-based fluids. HVFRs demonstrate more efficient proppant transport, due to their unique rheological properties, concurrently with a high friction reduction effect allowing higher pumping rates. However, all these benefits come with few critical limitations related to frac water quality, compatibility with other additives, and static proppant suspension, which makes them very similar to conventional crosslinked gels regarding their Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC) requirements at a well location during the field implementation. This paper illustrates the comprehensive laboratory efforts undertaken to evaluate different HVFR and crosslinked gel products, their successful field application supported by a robust and effective field QAQC process, and the critical importance of maintaining effective field-laboratory-field interaction/cycle to optimize the fluid design and maximize the results. Experimental studies on different products were conducted to measure the effect of frac water quality, HVFR loading, breaker loading, and compatibility with other additives used in the fluid recipe such as surfactants, scale inhibitors, and biocides. The ability of HVFR to suspend and transport proppant is not only a function of polymer loading but also highly influenced by fluid velocity as static and semi-dynamic proppant suspension tests demonstrate. Additionally, a full dynamic proppant transport test was also conducted using a multi-branched slot apparatus to simulate the flow inside a complex fracture network. Field execution followed a strict QAQC protocol including water analysis, field laboratory tests, water filtration, mixing procedure, product storage, and transport allowing direct onsite replication of the results that had been previously obtained in the laboratory. Constant communication between the field and the laboratory allowed a successful execution of several treatments in a challenging shale play in the Sichuan Region, China. These treatments achieved record proppant placements and, just as importantly, they demonstrated repeatability and consistency over time; which had not previously been attained. Laboratory testing proved critical in confirming that product segregation was occurring, even if there was no visual observation of this phenomenon, which had resulted in initial difficulties in fluid quality and reliability. The presence of constant QAQC engineering support on location was instrumental in rapidly identifying the potential root cause(s) and efficiently and correctly applying the necessary corrective actions. This paper will highlight the importance of laboratory testing, in order to design and optimize the fluid system. The paper will also demonstrate how critical the onsite QAQC is through actual examples of fluid optimization and field implementation. These two activities, although requiring a substantial resource commitment and effort, are both required to achieve successful execution.

Proppant Transport by a High Viscosity Friction Reducer

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Thomas Hu ◽  
David Fisher ◽  
Pious Kurian ◽  
Ron Calaway
Keyword(s):  
High Viscosity ◽  
Proppant Transport ◽  
Friction Reducer

Corporate Sustainability: Challenge to Managerial Orthodoxies

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dexter Dunphy
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Sustainability Management

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the issue of corporate sustainability. It examines why achieving sustainability is becoming an increasingly vital issue for society and organisations, defines sustainability and then outlines a set of phases through which organisations can move to achieve increasing levels of sustainability. Case studies are presented of organisations at various phases indicating the benefits, for the organisation and its stakeholders, which can be made at each phase. Finally the paper argues that there is a marked contrast between the two competing philosophies of neo-conservatism (economic rationalism) and the emerging philosophy of sustainability. Management schools have been strongly influenced by economic rationalism, which underpins the traditional orthodoxies presented in such schools. Sustainability represents an urgent challenge for management schools to rethink these traditional orthodoxies and give sustainability a central place in the curriculum.

Short-Form Application of the Screening Test of Spanish Grammar and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test to Latino Children

1978 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 220-235
Author(s):  
David L. Ratusnik ◽  
Carol Melnick Ratusnik ◽  
Karen Sattinger
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Screening Test ◽  
Normative Data ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Latino Children ◽  
Data Application ◽  
York Metropolitan Area ◽  
Multiple Regression Technique

Short-form versions of the Screening Test of Spanish Grammar (Toronto, 1973) and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (Lee, 1971) were devised for use with bilingual Latino children while preserving the original normative data. Application of a multiple regression technique to data collected on 60 lower social status Latino children (four years and six months to seven years and one month) from Spanish Harlem and Yonkers, New York, yielded a small but powerful set of predictor items from the Spanish and English tests. Clinicians may make rapid and accurate predictions of STSG or NSST total screening scores from administration of substantially shortened versions of the instruments. Case studies of Latino children from Chicago and Miami serve to cross-validate the procedure outside the New York metropolitan area.

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