Baker Hughes launches deepwater multistage fracturing service
Baker Hughes has launched a new deepwater multistage fracturing service, DEEPFRAC. It maximizes reservoir contact and simplifies operations for increased efficiency. Typically, after a deepwater well has been drilled, the subsequent completion phase involves multiple, time-consuming steps. The DEEPFRAC service eliminates casing and cementing operations and simplifies fluid logistics by using ball-activated, multiposition sleeves that can be installed in open-hole wellbores containing drilling mud.
Further, unlike conventional offshore systems’ complicated tool running procedures and extensive mechanical manipulation requirements, no tool movement is needed during the DEEPFRAC service’s stimulation process. The sleeve’s ball activation enables continuous pumping from the first stage to the last, according to Jim Sessions, Baker Hughes VP of Completions.
Conventional offshore stimulation systems are often limited to only five zones or “stages,” and these systems lack configuration flexibility that often results in uneven treatments and creates long sections of “dead space” that cover up hundreds of feet of viable pay. The sleeves used in the DEEPFRAC service are modular and flexible, enabling placement of up to 20 tightly spaced stages across the pay zone to ensure more uniform treatments and to maximize reservoir contact.
After stimulation operations are complete, Baker Hughes’ IN-Tallic disintegrating frac balls allow production to flow without intervention. The company’s BeadScreen proppant flowback control technology is also built directly into the DEEPFRAC sleeve’s production ports, providing increased reliability over conventional sand screens through higher burst/collapse ratings and improved erosion/plugging resistance, helping to ensure long-term, sand-free production.
On a recent job, the DEEPFRAC service saved an estimated 25 days rig time and $40 million on a first-ever 15-stage deepwater completion in the Gulf of Mexico’s Lower Tertiary.
Watch DC’s video with Mr Sessions, conducted at the 2017 OTC in Houston on 1 May for more information.
