Parent-Child Well Interaction in Multi-stage Hydraulic Fracturing: A Bakken Case Study

Abstract

Multi-stage hydraulic fracturing technology for enhanced production from unconventional reservoirs has improved significantly during the past decade. However, multi-stage fracturing for multiple closely spaced long horizontal wellbores introduces several technical challenges. One example is Fracture Driven Interaction (FDI). In this study, we document a Fracture Driven Interaction case study where the primary well was drilled into the Three Forks Formation, and an offset well was drilled in the Middle Bakken. The idea of this study was to investigate the possibility of frac-hit as the cause of the low production rate in the offset well. This study estimates the stress in the petroleum system, and combine that with petrophysical analysis to construct a fully coupled hydraulic fracturing, geomechanics and reservoir numerical model. The model matched the production data and the results show the occurrence of a fracture driven interaction was a result of stress decrease due to depletion. Fracture driven interaction effect was severe on the offset well reducing the stimulated reservoir volume, thus jeopardizing the production.