Summary
Improvements in completion technology have continued to increase the industry's ability to economically extract hydrocarbons from very low permeability reservoirs. The Jonah field in southwest Wyoming is a classic example of a reservoir commercialized with newer completion technology. The Lance formation in the Jonah field consists of several hundred feet of stacked lenticular sands with a reservoir permeability to gas of less than 10 μdarcy, requiring hydraulic fracturing to be economic. Completion techniques have evolved over the years. In the past 4 years, two techniques have emerged as the predominant completion methods—induced stress diversion and flow-through composite fracture plugs. This study evaluates these different techniques with spatial sampling to compare each well to its offset wells and to identify the completion scheme that yields the best results on cumulative production. From this study, a clear best practice for completing wells in the Jonah field to maximize production was determined.
