An important final step in the workflow was to couple the complex hydraulic fracture design to production simulation in the Kinetix software. Automated unstructured gridding was used to capture the granularity of the complex hydraulic fractures from all the wells. This provided a rigorous model to predict the production response from the tridimensional fracture network. Well-to-well interference and overall reservoir depletion from the induced hydraulic fractures could then be precisely simulated.
After the model was calibrated and matched to the observed production behavior, optimized completion strategies were designed based on the multiwell pad completion scenario. Parametric studies were run on different completions, fracture treatment variables, and well spacing scenarios.
Optimized design and well spacing
After applying the optimized treatment designs on a dozen wells in the field, the operator increased production by 40% and reduced completion costs by 11% on an average. The robust workflow in the Kinetix software also provided a building block for future optimization of hydraulic fracture design treatments.
