Tech Transfer Track

Rockies Success With Selective Hydrualic Fracturing

The West Hiawatha Field, located in Moffat County, Colorado, was first drilled in the early 1930s and includes 18 pay sandstones in the Wasatch, Fort Union, Lance, Lewis, and Mesaverde formations; a 3,500 ft interval. The Wasatch and Fort Union formations are composed of numerous fluvial channel sandstones ranging in thickness from 5 ft to 60 ft. Until recently, because of the cost of isolating them, multiple pay sands in the Wasatch and Fort Union formations were fractured with single stage hydraulic treatments. Because of the variation in fracture gradient of the multiple sandstones, stimulating multiple zones in one treatment proved ineffective.

Recent completions using coiled tubing as the fracturing conduit have allowed individual sands to be fracture stimulated. Results obtained by selectively fracturing all pay sandstones confirmed the significant variation of the fracture gradient in each interval. Now as many as 14 coiled tubing-conveyed stages have been placed per wellbore with individual stages placing from 20,000 to 55,000 pounds of proppant using a guar-based nitrogen foam fracturing fluid. With improved clean-up and enhanced efficiency, wells have been brought on production four to six days earlier than when using the traditional method of completion. Production rates from these new completions are 75% above historical rates and have significantly increased the return on capital. Presently, the total field production is at the highest level in the field's 70-year history.

Excerpted from PTTC Rocky Mountain Newsletter. In a paper given at the 52nd Annual Field Conference of the Wyoming Geological Association and the Wyoming Section of SPE, September 8 to 12, 2001 in Casper, Wyo., Roger G. Dickinson of Texaco North American Production, presented a paper titled "Revitalization of West Hiawatha Field".

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