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Optimizing Perforating Charge Design for Stimulation


 Hydraulic stimulation technologies, which are vital in maximizing the production of unconventional reservoirs, have typically focused on pumping capacities and rates, hydraulic fluid viscosities, and proppant materials. A technology that historically has been overlooked, but is critical to an efficient hydraulic stimulation, is the actual perforations through which the treatment is pumped.
 Fundamental rock and fracture mechanics demonstrate that perforation shot density, phasing, and hole size affect breakdown and treating pressures and injection rates, and can be a cause of early screenout. Although some of these perforation parameters are considered in the best practices, perforation hole size is often misunderstood.
 Complex computer fracture models, used to plan stimulation and completion programs, often incorporate average holediameter values with little consideration of the actual hole sizes or the variance from shot to shot. New research documents how this inconsistency can be considerable when using standard shaped-charge perforators. Nevertheless, perforating charges designed for natural completions, which focus primarily on the depth of penetration, are continuously used before hydraulic stimulation, ignoring the importance of consistent hole size. Advanced simulations using finite element analysis (FEA) have confirmed that fracture placement in a reservoir requiring stimulation would benefit significantly from maintaining consistency in the size of the perforation exit-hole.
 This work reviews the analysis performed and the subsequent successful field results for a new class of shaped-charge. The new fracture charge is engineered to maximize hole-diameter while maintaining a consistent exit-hole diameter independent of well profile and/or gun eccentricity. Designed for perforating before a hydraulic stimulation, a fracture charge has been shown to optimize fracturing efficiency and placement by ensuring that each perforation tunnel contributes equally during the fracture treatment, which contributes to providing cost effective hydraulic stimulation and maximizing subsequent asset value.