American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 73

Shale Resource Science
Forks area showing that on average,
Propel SSP increases production 42 percent when compared with a cross-linked
system," he illustrates.
More than 100 wells have been completed using Propel SSP, Goldstein says.
"Operators often see an immediate production increase," he comments. "In the
Bakken case study, production rose 39
percent within the first three months. Because of the higher initial production,
the technology typically will pay for itself
in four-six months."
In the past, Goldstein says Propel SSP
could be applied only in areas with freshwater, such as the Bakken and Rocky
Mountains. "Today, we are expanding
the operating envelope to total dissolved
solids concentrations as high as 350,000
ppm and hardness as high as 40,000
ppm," he says. "That will let operators
utilize the system's benefits in areas
where freshwater is limited, such as the
Permian Basin, or where produced water
is prevalent, such as Pennsylvania."
Goldstein said tests for the more versatile Propel SSP 350 were going well,
and that it was providing the same performance and trouble-free characteristics
as the original. He indicated the upgrade
would be introduced to the market by the
end of January.
Pushing Boundaries
NCS Multistage has been tweaking
the design and pushing the boundaries of
its pinpoint fracturing systems, says Mike
McKown, the company's U.S. president
of operations. For example, he says the
company is increasing the maximum
pump rate for its Multistage Unlimited
coiled-tubing annular frac system.
"In the past, pump rates capped at 25
barrels a minute with 41⁄2-inch casing and
35 bpm in 51⁄2-inch casing. By reducing
the tool's outer diameter above the multiset
bridge plug, we now are pushing 40 bpm
in 41⁄2-inch casing and are achieving 5060 bpm in 51⁄2-inch casing," McKown details. "That means crews can get on and
off location more quickly."
Even before those improvements, McKown says the company's MultiCycle frac
sleeves had been growing in popularity.
"In Canada, operators are using MultiCycle
sleeves to prevent sand flowback," he offers. "The system allows them to open a
sleeve, put the sand away, and immediately
close the sleeve to keep the sand from

Propel SSP
in Freshwater

Propel SSP 350
in Brackish Water

Propel SSP 350
in Produced Water

Raw Sand
in Slickwater

Proppant concentration at 6 ppa

Thanks to a coating that swells when it comes into contact with water, Fairmount
Santrol's Propel SSP® proppants stay suspended in fluid systems with relatively low viscosities. According to the company, the proppants' exceptional transport characteristics
and even distribution allow them to effectively prop fractures from the wellbore to the
tip, significantly increasing production.

flowing back into the well. By the time
the other stages have been fractured and
we shift the sleeves back open, the fractures
have closed around the sand, keeping it
in place."
In another application, an operator in
the Permian Basin did not have cement
behind pipe toward the well's heel. "We
fractured to that stage, shifted the sleeve
open, cemented the remainder of the casing, and then closed the sleeve," McKown
recalls. "Now the operator has good cement isolation, and did not have to compromise casing integrity to get it."
The ability to open and close the
sleeves several times lets operators stagger
stages to compensate for or exploit stress
shadowing, McKown says. He adds that
it can make refracturing less risky and
therefore more economic.
During fracturing, McKown notes that
the coiled tubing string used to deploy
the Multistage Unlimited tool acts as a
dead string, allowing the operator to monitor downhole pressures in real time.
"That can have tremendous benefits," he
says. "On a Northeast pad, knowing what
was going on down hole in real time
helped an operator reduce pump times
from two and a half hours to 40 minutes
by giving him the confidence to increase
proppant concentrations more rapidly
without the fear of screening out."
Recognizing the importance of down-

hole data, McKown says NCS Multistage
has deployed fiber optic cables with its
sleeves this year. "Coupled with data on
pressure and other information, this will
help operators get a handle on how effectively formations are being treated,"
he comments.
"We are going into drilled but uncompleted wells using our Mongoose
system, which has a multiset bridge plug
to isolate each stage and a sand jet perforator to access the formation," McKown
continues. "This tool allows wells without
sleeves in the casing or liner to still be
completed using pinpoint injection, and
it eliminates the need for perforating guns
and sand plugs or pump-down plugs, as
well as the subsequent mill-out operations."
McKown says NCS has used the tool
to perform as many 62 cuts in a single
trip. "In the Permian, we have done 90stage wells," he adds.
Other 2016 records for NCS include
placing 147 sleeves in a single well, performing 127 fracs in a single coiled tubing
trip, and putting 14.9 million pounds of
proppant in a well, McKown says.
McKown expresses excitement about
both the immediate and long-term future.
"We are working on some fantastic technologies to improve efficiencies and
reduce overall operational risk," he says.
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JANUARY 2017 73

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017

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