Abstract
Over 400 wells have been very successfully hydraulically fractured on the Kuparuk Sand for the Kuparuk River Unit Field (KRU)1 . Comparatively smaller petroleum deposits of the Kuparuk Sand have recently been developed in the adjacent Prudhoe Bay Field. These satellite pools, namely the Aurora and Borealis, similarly benefit from fracturing. Significant productivity increases from aggressive Tip Screen-out (TSO) fracture designs have delivered over 40, 000 bopd from 11 wells.
This paper describes the rationale, events and lessons learned leading up to the final very aggressive TSO designs for these satellite wells.
In many cases, fracturing fluid efficiencies measured during datafracs for the satellite wells were approximately two times higher than the Kuparuk Sand analog in the KRU area. Pad volumes during fracturing were as little as 3% of the total treatment volume with modeled proppant concentrations of 5 lbs/ft2 placed.
The majority of wells were S-shaped to minimize fracture complexity. Directional drilling costs, NWPL’s and production results are shown.
Bottom hole pressure gauge data is presented allowing refinement of the designs via net pressure analysis and times to start TSO. Production and pressure transient analysis results are also presented.
