High-Pressure Flexible Pipe for Fracturing Fluid Delivery

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation treatment that has been around since the 1940s, becoming more popular in recent years because of the unconventional hydraulic fracturing boom in North America. Between the 1990s and 2000s, the oil and gas industry found an effective way to extract hydrocarbons from formations that were previously uneconomical to produce. Consolidated unconventional formations such as shale and other tight rocks can now be artificially fractured to induce connectivity among the pores containing hydrocarbons, enabling them to easily flow into the wellbore for recovery at the surface. The method of fracturing unconventional reservoirs requires a large amount of surface equipment, continuously working to stimulate the multiple stages perforated along the horizontal section of the shale formation. The operations normally happen on a single or multi-wells pad with several sets of perforations fractured by using the zipper-fracturing methodology (Sierra & Mayerhofer, 2014). Compared with conventional hydraulic fracturing, the surface equipment must perform for extended pump time periods with only short stops for maintenance and replacement of damaged components. This paper addresses improvements made to the fracturing fluid delivery systems as an alternative to the fracturing iron traditionally used in fracture stimulation services. The improvement aims to enhance equipment reliability and simplify surface setup while reducing surface friction pressure during the hydraulic fracturing treatment.