Nathan Thomas Goodman's Report
by
Nathan Thomas Goodman, M.S.E.
University of Texas at Austin, 2007
Supervisors: Kamy Sepehrnoori
By using the newly developed best practices in hydraulic sand fracturing in the Monell Unit, a decrease in the injection to
production ratio will result. Diagnostics from pre and post fracture analysis and results from a three-dimensional hydraulic
sand fracturing simulator are combined to discuss the best practices for hydraulic sand fracturing techniques. Hydraulic
fracturing was utilized to decrease the injection to production ratio, without inhibiting sweep efficiency, in the five-spot
forty acres spacing EOR Patrick Draw Field, located in Sweetwater County, Wyoming.
The preliminary step for this report was to collect various data type including rock properties and rock mechanics for the
Monell Unit. From the field data different hydraulic fracturing techniques such as varying pump rates, varying sand
concentrations, pumping different gelling fluids, and reducing the number of perforations where evaluated and simulated using
FracproPT. Only the best techniques and procedures that resulted in a more effective hydraulic fracture were chosen to be
used in the Monell Unit fracture jobs. The new techniques and procedures were tested in the field and again reexamined for
any further improvement. The motivation behind finding the most effective hydraulic sand fracture job was to increase fluid
volumes from an Upper Cretaceous Almond Formation, Mesotidal Embayment. The final production increase will be shown in a
multitude of production plots. The current best practice for a hydraulic fracture in the Monell Unit include a limited entry
oil diesel mixture with 20/40 and 20/40 resin coated sand.
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