Frac Tips

Volume 3, Number 1 September 2000

Water as a Frac Fluid? In addition, gel damage to the proppant pack could make the
effective fracture length even less than the propped length.
Brief History - Conventional Fracturing
The first frac job consisted of pumping gelled oil (gelled gas- 30# Crosslinked Borate Gel
oline or Napalm actually), and many of the first frac jobs used Fracturing Zone With Some, But Not “Good” Confinement
viscous lease crude from fear of “damage”. Fairly quickly, Stress (psi) 47.83 min
cost considerations (safety not being a major issue at that
time) drove a switch to water, so “Water Fracs” were born in 7350
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0.200

Shale
the first years of hydraulic fracturing. Over time, advances in
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pumps, proppants, and fluids have made fracturing a more 0.600
complex process, and the “more technically advanced” areas 7450
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of the oil industry forgot about plain old water. Thus, in these

psf
PSF
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areas, the current standard fluids for fracturing normally pres- 1.200

sured reservoirs are crosslinked gels (with breakers). Should 7550

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1.600
we, Can we, go back?
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Shale
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2.000
The Good’s & Bad’s of Crosslinked Gels? 7650
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Crosslinked gels have excellent proppant transport properties

and are relatively easy to mix. They are also very reliable 6500 7000 50 100 150 200

through the use of normal QA/QC methods. They control fluid Fracture Penetration
Fracture Penetration(ft)

loss in reservoirs very effectively. All-in-all they sound like

pretty good fluids. However, they also do extensive damage to Could Water Be a Good Fracture Fluid?
proppant pack conductivity. The damage results from the gels An advantage is that water is a cheap, clean, non-damaging
dehydrating and fluid (in reservoirs with no water sensitivity problems) that
Gel Damage in a Proppant Pack concentrating in the cleans up relatively quickly. The disadvantage of water is that
proppant pack (see it has poor proppant carrying characteristics, low viscosity,
photo). Engineers and no fluid loss control. Note, however, low viscosity may
have learned to also minimize height growth and thus be a “+”. The low
work around this viscosity may also lead to narrow width, and thus could lead
problem by increas- to bridging problems during a fracture treatment with higher
ing the in-situ prop- proppant concentrations being placed in the fracture. But with
pant concentration sufficient rates, and for reservoirs with low fluid loss, water
to offset the effects may still be an effective fluid.
of damage, and/or
Potential Applications
through the use of
aggressive chemi- Using water as a fracturing fluid is intuitively best in re-
cal breaker sched- servoirs with low fluid loss (low permeability) and contained
ules. thin formations (maybe partially pressure depleted). Low per-
meability reservoirs can maximize the benefits of low prop-
Another poten-
pant concentrations placed from the waterfrac because of the
tial negative effect
limiting water viscosity. The fracture can grow several hun-
of crosslinked gels
dred feet in length due to the low fluid loss, and keep the
is the very high vis -
Photo Courtesy of StimLab™ proppant targeted in the pay area because of the fracture
cosity that can
containment provided. The results will be positive, provided
cause significant height growth, forcing use of a large volume
net pressure does not exceed the containing stresses in the
of proppant to cover the productive and non-productive area
bounding formations.
of the fracture. This problem is especially noticeable in low
permeability zones where length is needed for post-frac
SPE National Meeting
performance. Fracture height growth is also a potential
problem when there are depleted or water wet zones that a Dallas Texas, October 2-4 – Booth # 363
Please come visit our booth in Dallas. We’d love to visit and de-
fracture should not intersect.
monstrate the improved E-StimPlan 4.0, the only PC based,
An example of this is illustrated in the figure (above, to the fixed grid, finite element fracture stimulation model. Also with
right). In this case, a fairly large volume treatment (47,000 lb 3-D reservoir modeling and production decline analysis tools!
of proppant) has managed to create a propped fracture length
Thank You
of only about 125 feet in this thin zone due to height growth.

Frac Tips – NSI Technologies, Tulsa/Houston, 1-918-496-2071 – [email protected] – www.nsitech.com – Page 1 of 2

 only about 20,000 lb of proppant). With this relatively thin
Favorable Water Frac Candidate Formations zone, with only about 500 psi of Ds (confining stress
· Low Permeability Formations difference), a treatment using a viscous crosslinked gel would
(< 0.01 md ?, < 0.1 md ?, < ?) generate a nearly radial fracture as seen earlier.
Ø Control fluid loss
Ø Maximize benefit from relatively low proppant Water Frac in Thick Reservoirs
coverage (lb/ft 2 ) Stress (psi) 50.06 min
·

Shale
Formations with “Some” (but maybe not “Good”)
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Height Confinement
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· “Thin” formations 7525 0.240

· “Hard” rock formations where proppant embedment is 0.360

0.480
not a major concern

Gas
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psf
· Naturally fractured formations which can sometimes 7550
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be quite sensitive to gel residue invading/damaging the 0.840

0.960
natural fracture permeability 7575 1.080
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Reservoirs that Would Be Poor Candidates
What kind of reservoirs would make poor candidate choices 6475 7025 100 200 300
for a Water Frac? Again, this seems intuitive. Fracture Penetration(ft)

Reservoirs with NO height confinement would not be good

candidates because the fracture would grow radially (just like Reservoirs with thick pay sand are poor candidates
with crosslink gel), only now proppant settles into the under- because the proppant would tend to settle in the bottom of the
lying shale due to low fluid viscosity. Length is difficult to pay and not effectively cover the pay sand. Although there
attain because of the radial fracture growth, not allowing could be some benefit to this fracture treatment, it definitely is
proper stimulation for a low permeability zone. not maximizing the potential for a fracture treatment.
On the other hand, formations with “some”, but not Also, high permeability reservoirs would be a poor choice
“good” height confinement may make good targets. As seen in because high in-situ proppant coverage (lb/ft 2 ) is needed for
the figure below, given some confinement, and sufficient optimum production. Also, extremely high pump rates would
pump rate, good propped fracture length can be achieved out be required to combat the high fluid loss, with the resulting
to several hundred feet (300+ feet of propped length using horsepower costs, probably negating many of the benefits of
the waterfrac.
Water Frac – No Stress Contrast
Stress (psi) 24.25 min Un-Favorable Water Frac Candidate Formations
· Higher Permeability Formations
0.000
0.100 (> 0.1 md ?, > 0.5 md ?, > ?)
Shale

7400
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0.300
0.400 Ø Minimal benefit from low proppant lb/ft 2
·
PSF

0.500 Zones with “Good” (or “NO”) height confinement

psf

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0.700 · “Thick” zones
0.800 · “Soft” rock formations where proppant embedment is
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a major concern

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Conclusions
Fracture Penetration (ft)
Fracture Penetration(ft) Water can be used as a fracturing fluid because of it char-
Water Frac – “Some” Height Confinement acteristics as a clean, cheap non-damaging fluid. Care must be
Stress (psi) 21.25 min taken because of its adverse properties of poor proppant trans-
port, low viscosity (bridging), and no fluid loss control. But
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0.000 with sufficient study and proper candidate selection, water is
Shale

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(still, after all these years) potentially a very useful fracture
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7550
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0.600 Interested in this topic?
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NSI is managing a “Water Frac Consortium” for seven
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0.900 major producing and service companies. This consortium

1.000 has as it’s objective “The Optimization & Design of
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Water Fracs in Simple and Complex Geologic Settings”.
6500 7000 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 For additional information, contact Larry Britt at
Fracture Penetration(ft)
Fracture Penetration (ft) [email protected].

Frac Tips – NSI Technologies, Tulsa/Houston, 1-918-496-2071 – [email protected] – www.nsitech.com – Page 2 of 2