Hydraulic Fracturing Research in the Frontier Formation Through the Gas Research Institute’s Fourth Staged Field Experiment

Abstract The Gas Research Institute (GRI) has sponsored a field based research program through the Staged Field Experiment (SFE) project for the last several years. SFE wells are drilled specifically for conducting research in the analysis and stimulation of tight sands and for validating technologies under development in other GRI projects. The majority of this work was spent in the Travis Peak and Cotton Valley formations in east Texas where the first three SFE wells were drilled. Results of this work have already been published in GRI reports1–3 and SPE papers4–6. This paper summarizes the results from research conducted on the fourth SFE well. This well was drilled in the Frontier formation of southwestern Wyoming. A primary objective of this SFE was to determine if technology developed in previous SFE wells in east Texas can be successfully transferred to ther geologic basins. In order to fully describe each of the layers of rock on SFE wells, data are collected from whole cores, openhole geophysical logs, in-situ stress measurements, production and pressure transient tests, fracture injection treatments, and fracture diagnostic measurements. These data are then analyzed in detail with advanced formation evaluation techniques, including numerical models, in an effort to obtain the best possible description of the reservoir and hydraulic fracture. On SFE No. 4, there were several new technologies and analysis methods that were being evaluated. Specifically, these techniques to evaluate SFE No. 4 included in-situ stress profiling, fracture height and azimuth analysis, hydraulic fracture analysis, and post-fracture performance analysis. Knowledge and techniques developed through GRI research programs are designed to benefit the natural gas industry. A better understanding and more accurate analysis of the hydraulic fracturing process will lead to improved treatment designs and additional gas production from tight sands such as the Frontier. A goal of the GRI program is to apply rigorous analysis techniques to evaluate hydraulic fracture treatments in any geologic basin. The SFE No. 4 in southwestern Wyoming illustrates that rigorous analysis techniques can be used to analyze and better understand fracture geometries in complex reservoirs that typify tight gas formations.