Extending the Life Cycle of Old Wells: Fracturing and Replenishing Formation Energy at the Same Time

Abstract

In order to extend the life cycle of the developed oilfield and ensure the stable production of the oilfield, the exploration and practice of supplementary energy refracturing has been carried out in a small block in eastern China which is on the verge of shutdown since 2017. All of the well in this block are vertical wells. This technology breaks the injection production relationship of the original well pattern. The injection wells and production wells are fractured at the same time. Fracturing fluid is not only used for fracturing, but also for supplementing formation energy. In order to produce more new fractures and make them more complex, low viscosity slippery water is used in hydraulic fracturing. It ensures that the material cost is reduced while the amount of fracturing fluid is increased. In addition, the multi-stage proppant combination is used to support all levels of fractures, which improves the conductivity of all levels of fractures. During the implementation of refracturing, the amount of fluid used in single layer is gradually increased, from 2300 to 3500 cubic meters, the maximum amount of fracturing fluid injected in single layer is 10000 cubic meters, and the proportion of slippery water is increased from 80% to 95%. The proppant is composed of 100/140 mesh and 40/70 mesh ceramic proppant, with an average sand content of 97.7 cubic meters per layer. From the perspective of construction data, after increasing the amount of fracturing fluid used in single well, the average pump stopping pressure of the later batch of construction wells is increased by 3.5 Mpa and the construction pressure is increased by 4.5MPa. After adding temporary plugging agent, the average construction pressure increased by 1.8 MPa, and the opening characteristics of new joints were obvious. After refracturing, all test wells are produced by automatic injection production, the total number of automatic injection production days is 5.2 times of the initial fracturing, and the cumulative oil production is 1.5 times of the initial fracturing. Through practice, the original injection production relationship is broken. Increasing the amount of fracturing fluid can not only supplement the formation energy, but also improve the complexity of fractures. The multi-stage proppant slug can significantly improve the conductivity of fractures at all levels, prolong the life cycle of old wells, and provide technical support for multi thin layer reconstruction.