American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015 - 85

SpecialReport: MWD/LWD Technology
Staging software calculates both a production and a fracture
index, which are combined to optimize stage and cluster placement. The production index uses individually-weighted criteria
such as facies quality, effective porosity, and brittleness to quantify the differences in reservoir character. Likewise, the fracture
index uses weighted criteria such as the closure stress, natural fracture index, and cement bond index to highlight areas of differing mechanical properties or mechanical risk.
Additional variables may be used, including permeability, natural fracture density, or hazard curve, based on proximity to major fractures that potentially could communicate with the waterbearing Viola Limestone.
The software is used typically to supply two custom designs
versus a geometric or client-supplied design. One of the two custom designs typically is optimized for the absolute best rock and
least pressure differential between clusters (track 14 of Figure 5.
The second custom design goal is to achieve more stages in
marginal rock that can tolerate slightly higher stress differential
between clusters (track 15). Track 16 of Figure 5 shows the actual design performed after the well was drilled. These three designs were compared and plotted to net stress and treating pressure differences between clusters in individual stages.
After the well was completed, a production water tracer and
a flowing temperature log were used to interpret well flow
versus the actual perforation cluster positions.
JOHN SPAID has worked for Devon Energy for the past 12 years,
and is coordinating the reservoir characterization for Devon's integrated reservoir characterization projects. His previous work for
Devon has been in the Eagle Ford Shale, Barnett Shale, Woodford
Shale in western Oklahoma, and the Granite Wash in the Texas
Panhandle and western Oklahoma. Previously, Spaid spent 18 years
with Marathon Oil and five years with Petro-Hunt LLC. He earned
a B.S. in geology from James Madison University and an M.S. in
geology from Southern Methodist University.
JEFF DAHL is a senior completion engineering adviser for
Devon Energy, and has more than 30 years of experience in engineering positions for large and small operators, in research
and development, global business development, and in U.S. field
engineering operations for a major service company. Areas of
expertise include hydraulic fracturing, artificial lift, waterflooding, conformance control, and sand control. Dahl received a
B.S. in civil engineering from the University of IllinoisUrbana/Champaign, and studied for a M.S. in petroleum engineering at the University of Oklahoma. He holds eight U.S.
patents and three Canadian patents.
SUSANA GUTIERREZ CARRILEO serves as a senior

LWD technical adviser for Halliburton Sperry Drilling in Denver. In her 10 years with Halliburton, she also has worked as
an LWD engineer in West Africa and a geosteering specialist
in the United States, Mexico and Europe. Prior to her time with
Halliburton, Carrilero worked as an LWD engineer in Norway

Image Analysis

Fractures were identified and quantified along the horizontal
wellbore. An example from stage 10 of the borehole imaging software is illustrated in Figure 6.
From stage 11 to 6, there was a good correlation between faults
and fractures greater than 45 degrees in dip magnitude, compared
with water tracer data. However, below stage 6, no relationship
could be determined to explain the water production related to
fractures. Although numerous fractures are observed on the image log, no single fracture or group of fractures below stage 6 could
be singled out for contributing to water production.
The engineering staging software was written after the lateral well had been completed. Post-well analysis using this software would have eliminated the major stages contributing to water production. The LWD laterolog resistivity imaging tool was
necessary to identify the natural fractures and faults along the horizontal wellbore.
r
Editor's Note: This article was adapted from a paper prepared
for the Society of Petrophysicists & Well Log Analysts' 56th annual logging symposium, held July 18-22 in Long Beach, Ca. The
authors thank Halliburton's Jeremy Murillo and Jessica Mitchell,
as well as TekSpert Consulting's Kristie Landwair for their input and assistance.

and West Africa for Schlumberger. She earned her master's in
civil engineering from Polytechnic University of Catalonia based
in Barcelona, Spain.
ERIC SHEARER is technical sales manager of LWD and
drilling systems in North America for Halliburton Sperry Drilling.
In 18 years with the company, Shearer has worked as an LWD
field engineer, office-based log analyst, LWD coordinator, and
operations manager. He has worked on exploration and development wells in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, the North
Sea, and Continental Europe. Shearer completed a B.S. in geology from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
GLENN CARPENTER is a senior petrophysicist for Halliburton. After earning an M.S. in geology and experimental statistics from Louisiana State University in 1966, Carpenter
worked for 11 years as a geologist for Union Oil Company of
California, after which he ran his own consulting company,
Atchafalaya Exploration, for 13 years. He has spent nearly 24
years working as a geologist.
DAN BULLER is a senior global adviser for unconventional optimization in Halliburton's Formation and Reservoir Solutions Group. He has 33 years of industry experience in petrophysical interpretation of, and completion applications in, lowpermeability clastics, shales and complex carbonates. Buller
earned a B.S. in physics and math from Nebraska Wesleyan University, and an M.S. in physics from Kansas State University.
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2015

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