Because conventional deep penetrating shaped charges are optimized for natural completions with a focus on maximizing the depth of penetration, they are not designed to produce uniformly shaped and sized entrance holes around the wellbore, which is a critical requirement for improving fracture distribution between individual perforations.

A family of stimulation-optimized shaped charges (“S-charges”) has been developed to provide consistently large perforation entrance holes across the wellbore azimuth and across a range of gun standoffs. This uniformity is achieved without a loss of penetration depth.

Consistent entrance holes increase the area open to flow (AOF) for each perforation, which decreases the pressure drop across the perforation and lowers treating pressures, reducing the likelihood of early screenout. Fracturing operational risk is reduced while efficiency is increased.