One of the main objectives of a refracturing operation is to increase oil and gas production while avoiding the costs associated with completing a new well. Alternatively, refracturing may also be employed to protect existing producers against detrimental fracture hits from new infill wells, because when a fracture hit on the parent occurs, there is a significant chance that some or all of the parent well production may be lost; or that the child well realizes a lower EUR than the parent.

In this study, an operator in the Eagle Ford shale conducted their first refracturing program to trial technology and determine if the incremental production justified the investment. This paper explains the candidate selection process of analyzing and ranking all candidates the operator put forth. Furthermore it discusses the design process, execution, and results of 5 wells that were selected to refracture.

Advanced fracturing concepts were tested as part of this study including a new far field diverter to avoid pressure hits on offset existing wells and trying to protect parent wells from child well stimulation treatments. Diagnostics, including a novel wellhead surveillance network, were utilized to monitor the impact of new refracturing stimulation treatments on both stimulated wells and offset producers. The field execution, impact of the various technologies, and production results are also discussed in the paper.