ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of a field study investigating the relationship between the productivity and wellbore deviation of hydraulically fractured wells. Fractured, high angle wells are shown to have improved skin factors, higher productivity indexes and increased production rates compared to wells of lower deviation. The relationship of decreasing skin factor with greater wellbore deviation is shown to have a similar trend to the theory for a non-fractured well. No relationship is found between the wellbore azimuth and well productivity although the paper lists the design steps necessary to minimize the negative effects associated with "out of plane" fracture turning. The results of this study are contrasted to other published studies and reasons for differences are proposed.
The paper describes how this study was used to justify drilling higher deviation wells from existing drill sites at the Kuparuk River Field in Alaska, eliminating the expense and environmental impact of developing five additional peripheral drill sites.
