Abstract
Project “Hectarea Fracturada” by the Operating National Mexican Company was the first simultaneous stimulation of two parallel horizontal wells (i.e., zipper hydraulic fracturing) project in Latin America, implementing a reservoir-specific approach by integrating geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and geomechanical assessments. The project was executed in fields located in a basin in the north region of Mexico, which consists of alternating shales and thin bedded sandstones. The target sandstone formation at the location of two horizontal wells is deemed tighter (i.e., > 1 md) than the other area in the basin.
Initial production from the two horizontal wells after a total of 32 hydraulic fracture stages was 8, 320 BOPD. The initial production was greater than 15 times the average initial production from conventional single-frac wells in the area and was approximately 40 times greater than the initial production from the vertical offset well. The production from the two horizontal wells stabilized at 2, 517 and 1, 011 BOPD, respectively. A typical conventional well in this area produced 220 BOPD, while the offset well yielded 100 BOPD. The two horizontal wells had 240, 000 bbl of 90-days cumulative production, which exceeded 14 times the average cumulative production from the conventional wells in the fields. Application of the completion technology was considered successful and was extended to other not conventional and mature fields, with similar successes.
