SPE-178049-MS

The Future Impact of a Hydraulic Fracturing Pilot Project on the

Completion Strategy in South- Fuwaris Field
Jamal Al-Rubaiyea, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company; Abdulaziz Al-Najim, Musaad Sulaiman Al-Harbi,
and Majed Al-Dwaish, Saudi Arabian Chevron; Sayantan Sanyal, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Oil and Gas India Conference and Exhibition held in Mumbai, India, 24 26 November 2015.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
The South Fuwaris field comprises of low to moderately permeable heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs,
developed with horizontal bare-foot completions with increased pay-zone exposure. Hydraulic Fracturing
conducted in tangent section of the production liner for a horizontal open-hole producer is shaping the
development strategy for this field where conventional coiled-tubing matrix stimulations couldnt achieve
the intended wormhole penetration due to inherent pumping rate limitations, and borehole enlargements
had rendered Acid fracturing in open-hole only moderately successful. The inability to attain effective
pressure containment necessary for formation breakdown had resulted in unsuccessful open-hole Acid
fracture treatments in this field for both existing and newly drilled wells, either due to non-uniform
bore-hole enlargement left-over by formation dissolution from previous matrix stimulations, or due to
undulations and wash-outs in newly drilled laterals. To circumvent these operational limitations, the
candidate well was drilled as a barefoot completion in the direction of minimum horizontal stress with an
extended production liner to accommodate a cased-hole Acid Fracture treatment with transverse fracture
orientation designed to drain a large section of the reservoir. Well testing was distributed into phases to
interpret the production enhancement from this completion technique, to quantify contribution from the
open-hole lateral after initial completion, from the isolated uppermost fractured interval immediately after
the Acid Fracture treatment and the subsequent commingled production from both the open-hole lateral
and the cased-hole fractured intervals. The key elements that led to the success of this project were the
execution of well placement perpendicular to the fracture plane orientation as expected from local stress
distribution, achieving an effective cement bond in the horizontal production liner and an advanced fiber
based Acid-Fracturing stimulation designed to deliver deeper and infinitely conductive fractures. Evaluated in terms of operational cost savings and efficiency of the treatment execution, the treatment strategy
is a major improvement over the conventional multi-stage assemblies previously employed for fracturing
open-hole horizontal laterals in the South Fuwaris field. The job design eliminated the use of any complex
permanent down-hole assembly for the fracturing treatment which means there isnt any reduction in the
cross sectional area and hence no additional pressure drop imposed by flow restrictions and also a
complete bore-hole access is available for future open-hole matrix stimulations or other interventions. The
objective was to evaluate the existing completion strategy in South Fuwaris field for horizontal wells; to

SPE-178049-MS

challenge the current ideology focused entirely on performance of long open-hole single or multilaterals,
and focus more on reservoir development by way of fractures initiated entirely from the cased-hole
horizontal section. The projects success has opened pathways to further explore in this direction to
establish the optimum completion design for thin and tight heterogeneous carbonate formations like South
Fuwaris.

Introduction
The South Fuwaris field, located in the Partitioned Zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia comprises of
heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs from the Lower Cretaceous period with low to moderate permeability.
The development wells are predominantly drilled horizontal to attain increased reservoir exposure in these
thin and tight pay zones; ESP (Electrical submersible pump) is a preferred mode of artificial lift to produce
the wells at commercially viable rates. Stimulation treatments are necessary over the production life of the
wells, either to remove the skin damage inflicted by drilling fluids or to revive the diminished productivity
after prolonged production. Matrix acidization via coiled tubing is an established stimulation strategy for
the long horizontal open-hole completions; the treatment objective being creation of deeply etched
wormholes to enhance production. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the carbonate formation in this area,
a meticulous design with acid diversion is required to achieve a uniform acid placement in the open-hole
lateral. During matrix stimulation, Coiled tubing with in-built optical fiber is used in many of the
stimulation treatments to record a real-time downhole temperature log which enhances better interpretation of variation in permeability across the lateral. However, due to the inherent flow-rate restriction
associated with pumping fluids through Coiled tubing and the complexities of in-situ acid reaction rates,
the end result in most cases is a merely enlarged borehole created by formation dissolution. Higher
injection rates are absolutely necessary to drive the acid worm-holes deep into the reservoir, more so in
the case of a low permeable heterogeneous reservoir like South Fuwaris. Application of Larger coil size
with friction reducing fluids and higher acid strength were effective in achieving a minor increment in the
pumping rates but the net effect was not a commendable improvement over previous results. Quite early
on, Hydraulic Fracturing was deemed as an effective stimulation technique for South Fuwaris wells, based
on the reservoir conditions of low permeability, low API oil and low water cut.

Hydraulic Fracturing in Carbonates

When Hydrocarbons are trapped in low to medium permeability rock, pathways are needed to allow the
flow to move through the rock to the well and to enable it to be pumped to surface. A common method
of doing this is to use hydraulic fracturing to crack the rock and create the paths required. Hydraulic
Fracturing is an established technique to create a fracture in low to medium permeability rock using a
pressurized fluid and fill such fracture with multi-layers of proppant and packing the fracture with high
conductivity channel in sandstones / shale or creating an infinitely conductive flow-channel by etching the
fractured rock with acid in the case of carbonates. The primary goal of creating a mechanically stable
propped fracture & the etching of the fracture-face with acid is to provide high flow capacity conduit to
deliver the hydrocarbons to the wellbore with the maximum possible rate and the lowest pressure drop
across the reservoir. Enhanced production of hydrocarbon is often analyzed as the outcome of balance
between the deliverability from the reservoir to the fracture which in turn is related to the Fracture
Half-Length. The effective fracture half-length and the deliverability of hydrocarbon from the reservoir
to the fracture to the wellbore are thus in turn associated with the fracture conductivity defined as product
of fracture permeability and fracture width. Low to medium permeability reservoirs require a highly
conductive channel to aid in the flow of hydrocarbons to the wellbore; therefore in this instance a fracture
must be conductive enough to ensure adequate production rates. Hydraulic fracturing technique is
therefore applied to both carbonates & sandstones worldwide to enhance the production from marginal
reservoirs.

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Acid fracturing is best applied to carbonate reservoirs; the principal difference with a proppant channel
fracturing is that acid fracturing consists of acid-etching the face of the hydraulically created fracture.
Conductivity is created by non-uniform etching and channeling due to viscous fingering. Reaction occurs
between the acid and the formation allowing acid to penetrate deeper into the fracture before becoming
spent along the fracture half length. Due to the inherent ductility of carbonate formations, low minimum
horizontal stress on the fracture is required to maintain an adequate conductivity along the fracture
half-length over the life of the fractured well. Several factors and considerations have to be taken into
account when designing the Acid-Fracturing treatment. Of these, primary concern is the penetration
distance which the acid will have to travel along the fracture length. The pad fluid is used to create the
geometry of the desired dimensions and followed by acid injection to etch the fracture walls, thereby
creating an infinitely conductive path. When the acid contacts the walls of the fracture, the reaction
between the acid and the carbonates is instantaneous and increases with higher formation temperatures.
Thus, the fracturing treatment must be designed to achieve a fracture of significant width yet provide the
minimal leak-off. Factors such as fracture width, injection rate and viscosity of acid along with the
temperature of the formation, all will play a significant role in the penetration of acid into the fracture.
Acid reacts instantaneously with the carbonate rock when in contact with the fracture face, thus leading
to creation of some worm holes enhancing the leak-off within the fracture therefore leading to the fracture
towards closure. Thus the viscosity and the leak-off properties of the pad should be controlled to allow
maximum fracture width prior to the acid touching the rock.
Multi-stage Open-hole fracturing in SF wells: Lessons learnt
Post job analysis of the coiled tubing matrix acid-stimulation jobs done in horizontal open-hole South
Fuwaris wells depicted that pumping rates attained during the treatment werent effective towards
intended placement of deeper worm-holes; instead a near well-bore formation dissolution was being
delivered in most of the cases. This evidence was supported by the Caliper log survey done in these wells.
From the hindsight of this historical evidence, conducting a Multi-stage Acid Fracturing in the open-hole
lateral was deemed as a preferable option. Multi-stage hydraulic Fracturing was carried out by placing a
pre-fabricated Frac assembly in the open-hole that segmented the bore-hole into smaller stages by the use
of open-hole packers as depicted in figure 1. The individual open-hole segments were fractured with a
pressurized pad fluid followed by acid-etching the fractured rock to create conductive flow-channel paths.
A uniform bore-hole profile is a basic requirement for this treatment to be successful, since the bore-hole
section has to be hydraulically isolated by the packers sealing elements and subjected to extreme
break-down pressures above the fracture gradient. In view of the above requirement, existing wells that
had already been subjected to a matrix stimulation treatment, at least once in their production life were
rejected at the candidate selection phase due to huge variations in the bore-hole size over the length of the
lateral. Inadvertently, caliper logs recorded across newly drilled laterals prior to any matrix treatment also
depicted patterns of wash-outs and undulations which would be a deterrent against establishing an
effective pressure-seal. After a long phase of screening, a Multi-stage Acid Fracturing was carried out on
the selected candidate. The post-job analysis revealed that seal had been lost across some of the packer
stages while the fracturing fluids were being pumped, which betrayed the entire objective of the treatment
design. As had already been suspected, the major hindrance against the success of these jobs was the
non-uniform borehole profile prevalent in most of the South Fuwaris open-hole laterals.

SPE-178049-MS

Figure 1Completion Schematic after Multistage Acid Fracturing for a standard horizontal open-hole lateral in South Fuwaris. This
design was implemented prior to the success of the Acid Fracturing job done in SF-AB. The design had certain inherent deficiencies
as discussed in the paper.

The lessons captured from this Acid Fracture job were:

1. Failure in obtaining the requisite pressure-seal across the bore-hole translates into low probability
of fracturing the intended intervals.
2. The multi-stage Frac assembly left inside the open-hole lateral would eliminate the scope of any
future interventions for productivity restoration. This is a major handicap as known from the
history of South Fuwaris wells that require multiple stimulation treatments over their production
life.
3. Internal diameter restriction in the multi-stage completion would increase friction loss and affect
productivity. For an 8-1/2 bore-hole, the internal diameter available for fluid flow would be
reduced to less than 5 after setting the Frac assembly.
4. Considerable capital expense has to be incurred due to the combined cost of the Frac assembly and
huge treatment volumes. Uncertainty related to the Post-fracture performance complicates the
overall project economics.
Due to the operational and performance limitations imposed by the above mentioned hydraulic
fracturing in an open-hole lateral, an alternate approach was devised to conduct the multiple fracture
treatments across the extended tangential section of the production liner placed horizontally across the
pay-zone. Commingled production from the stimulated bare-foot completion and the hydraulically
fractured cased-hole perforations would ensure faster payback and increased recovery. In conjunction with
the service company assigned for the Acid Fracturing project, an advanced fiber based Acid-Fracturing
treatment was successfully designed and executed to deliver deeper fractures with infinitely conductive
channels for a pilot well SF-AB in the South Fuwaris field.

Acid Fracturing in the cased-hole tangent section: Pre requisites and

preparatory work
Early 2013, South Fuwaris asset management team started scanning the existing horizontal open-hole
producers to be candidates for conducting Acid fracturing in the cased-hole tangent production liner. Two
major obstacles hindering the selection of a suitable pilot well were the cement integrity of the production
casing and the length of the liner itself. Cement evaluation of the existing horizontal production liners

SPE-178049-MS

showed frequent patches of bad cements, sections with long channelings along with un-even circumferential distribution of the cement from low side to high side of the liner. Moreover, the length of the tangent
section in existing wells were designed to be just enough for adequate placement of the ESP (Electrical
submersible pumps) without sufficient margin to accommodate both an ESP and a series of perforations
for a Fracture treatment. The only available solution was to drill a new horizontal well and incorporate
the designs necessary for a future cased-hole Acid-fracturing treatment.
Well SF-AB, scheduled to be drilled and completed by mid-2013 was deemed as fit to be a candidate
for the treatment program. The well design, still in its inception stage was revised entirely from scratch
to adapt it for the Acid-Fracturing project. Ratawi Oolite reservoir in South Fuwaris field is an elongated
NNW-SSE double plunging anticlinal structural closure. Many of the horizontal wells drilled in the Oolite
reservoir follow a well placement trajectory of NNW-SSE. However in the case of well SF-AB, placement
of the open-hole horizontal lateral was done on a SSW-NNE trajectory to exploit the regional stress
distribution in favor of fracture propagation for the planned Hydraulic fracture treatment in the cased-hole
tangent section. In order to assess and quantify the effectiveness of the treatment design, the well was
initially completed as a barefoot open-hole horizontal producer with plans in place to conduct acid
fracturing after quantifying the production decline trend from the open-hole over a brief period of time.
The different aspects of well completion were integrated at the design stage to prepare the well SF-AB
as a future cased-hole Acid-Fracturing candidate. This would include:
1. Allocate a certain length of the cased-hole tangent section for ESP (Electrical submersible pump)
placement; the equipment length being estimated from target production rate and expected well
productivity.
2. Well placement design to place the 8 extended tangent section in a sweet spot that would reap
maximum benefit from the Hydraulic Fracture.
3. Review cement integrity data from previous horizontal completions in South Fuwaris and formulate a cement design in conjunction with the drilling and completion teams, that would provide the
production liner with the necessary strength to sustain extreme pressures expected while Acid
Fracturing.
4. Incorporate a certain degree of flexibility in the overall design, to compensate for parameters that
may turn out to be different from estimated values.
SF-AB was completed as a 6-1/8 inch open-hole horizontal lateral delivered below a 7 inch production
liner. Prior to drilling the horizontal lateral, an 8- vertical pilot hole was drilled from the 9-5/8
intermediate casing for the sole purpose of gathering structural and geological data from wireline logs;
data that would be absolutely crucial at a later stage for the Acid-Fracture design. The tangent section was
kept around 400 feet longer than the prevailing liner design, the additional length being sufficient to house
a series of perforations for fracturing between the ESP and the casing shoe. Based on the insights gathered
from several rounds of discussions with the cementing company and the well-completion team, the cement
design was fine-tuned to optimize the number of casing centralizers, casing stand-off value and most
importantly, the slurry design. The 7 liner was run-in-hole with an arrangement of two centralizers for
every casing joint and a combination of 17 ppg and 15.8ppg cement were used to cement the liner. This
was necessary to eliminate any risk of channelling behind pipe during the fracturing operation. Further
endeavor is underway between the concerned groups to improve on the cement strategy for future
cased-hole Acid fracture treatments in the South Fuwaris wells. Coiled tubing based matrix stimulation
was performed in the 6-1/8 open-hole horizontal lateral and SF-AB was put on production around
November 2013 with an ESP. The fracturing treatment was conducted in mid-2014 after monitoring 6
months of well performance from the open-hole lateral section. It was observed that from the commencement of production till the date of Acid-Fracture operation, the production had declined from an initial
value of 500 STB/ day of oil to less than 300 STB/ day of oil. (Refer to figure 4 depicting the production

SPE-178049-MS

history for this well). Over the course of these 6 months, the intended SF-AB Fracturing design underwent
several revisions based on inputs from both South Fuwaris Asset management and the Acid Fracturing
design crew. The primary concerns involved were:
1. Evaluating the Petro physical parameters to fairly estimate the trade-off between Fracture length
maximization and Fracture height containment to stay above the Oil-water contact.
2. Deciding the optimum number of stages, perforation length for each stage and the requisite blank
section to be left between the stages.
3. The pumping schedule with respect to the sequence and volumes of the Pad, acid and Diverter.
The initial Fracturing proposal involved a traditional Plug & Perf approach where each stage would be
perforated, fractured and subsequently isolated with a fast-drillable bridge plug before moving on to the
next stage. Post completion of the Acid Fracturing treatment, a single trip in the well with a milling bit
would be necessary to mill out all the isolation plugs. This option was rejected at the design stage based
on the culmination of previous experiences in South Fuwaris field related to milling of isolation plugs.
Since the reservoir pressure is sub-hydrostatic, it was anticipated and from what has been evidenced in the
past; most of the milled debris cannot be circulated out of the well and will be injected deep into the
reservoir. Apart from the detrimental effect on productivity, the injected debris creates further complications to the delicate ESP components while flowing back episodically. Instead of deploying the
mill-able plug option, the plan was improvised for each fracturing stage as:
1. Perforate the required interval in the 7 horizontal Liner using Tubing conveyed perforations and
POOH.
2. Run in hole with a Retrievable bridge Plug set it in the blank casing section below the perforations.
Selection of the type of plug would be crucial for the success of the entire job.
3. Run in hole with the Fracturing string on 3 tubing; consisting of Packer assembly, safety point,
Tubing test valve and high resolution pressure gauges (Both internal and external to record the
pressure in tubing and casing respectively)
4. Perform Calibration tests and Mini-Frac to gather data on formation parameters. This step would
be absolutely necessary for the 1st stage and might not be done for the later stages, dependent on
the data quality obtained from the 1st stage.
5. Perform the Fracturing treatment after fine-tuning the pumping schedule based on parameters
determined from the previous step.
6. POOH the Fracturing string assembly. Evaluate the down-hole pressure signature.
7. Un-set and POOH the Retrievable bridge Plug. Prepare well for the next stage of Fracturing.
Three sets of perforation intervals were planned based on the available liner section. The design
objectives for the Acid Fracture treatment in SF-AB were to:
1. Sustain current wellbore completion without imposing any restrictions in accessing the open-hole
lateral in future interventions.
2. Achieve deep penetration into the formation in order to enhance the fracture-conductivity
3. Compensate for the production decline from the open-hole by attaining the maximum production
from the cased-hole fractured intervals.

Acid-fracturing in SF-AB: Job Execution and Post-Fracturing performance

Permeability and spurt loss are two key parameters that affect acid fracturing treatment and if not properly
controlled, will lead to unwanted loss of acidic fluid near the wellbore of the acid and will have majority
of the acid spent along that region of the fracture face. Fiber diverting agents are pumped in order to
provide superior diversion by generating a barrier to flow in the perforations where the effect on overall

SPE-178049-MS

skin is the greatest. Injection of fiber based diverting agents controls spurt losses and therefore allows
acidizing fluids to penetrate deeper into the fracture face and coherently allow diversion along the zone
of interest vertically to cover the entire interval for superior coverage while performing the acid fracturing
treatment. Spurt loss is a function of the heterogeneity of the formation, generally not well characterized
during the job design. Injection of these fibers at lower rates when the diverter stage is nearing the
perforations tends to lower the spurt losses thus allowing diversion of the fracturing fluids. As the fiber
based diverting agents react with the carbonate rock, there is an increased viscosity development and
temporary clogging of the wormholes within the fracture face in addition to temporary plugging of the
perforations leading to an optimum placement of acid fracturing treatment.
The Fiber based diversion technology that was deployed in the well SF-AB combined viscoelastic
diverting acid with degradable fibers. It is temporarily designed to control leak-off of acidizing fluids into
the natural and wormholes in carbonates from acidizing of the rock face. The fibers with the aid of
viscoelastic diverting acid creates aids in the bridging of these natural or enhanced higher permeable paths
in addition to continuous buildup of viscosity as acid is spent. The fibers create a network of fibrous
bridges across the fissures or dominant wormholes causing flow restrictions. This leads to an increase in
diversion efficiency of chemical self-diverting systems in natural fractures where viscous leak-off control
methods alone are typically not as effective. After the treatment, the chemical system is cleaned up with
the presence of hydrocarbons and the fibers are dissolved.
To optimize the available length of the 7 production liner, three intervals were finalized for perforation
and Fracturing treatment. An average gap of 80 ft. from the middle section of one perforation interval to
another was maintained to reduce probability of fracture over-lap. The preparatory work mentioned in the
previous section i.e. perforation and temporary isolation prior to the actual fracturing for each stage took
2-3 days while an additional 2-3 days were spent in Running in hole with the Fracture string, conducting
the Calibration tests, fracturing the perforated interval and eventually POOH with the Fracture string.
After every stage of fracture treatment, the retrievable bridge plug was un-set and POOH and the well was
prepared for fracturing the next stage. As part of the Calibration tests prior to pumping the Main fracturing
treatment on the first interval, step-rate tests and Mini-Frac were conducted to provide the best possible
information about the formation. The step-rate tests were done using a 7% KCL brine solution while the
Mini-Frac was done using the designed treatment PAD fluid to simulate parameters as close as possible
to the actual treatment design; the objective being estimation of formation parameters to recalibrate the
existing stress model. The information gathered from the Calibration test was substantially valuable for
tweaking the actual treatment design. The data collected from the above mentioned tests were:
1. Fracture extension pressure; determined from the Step-Rate test.
2. Quantitative evaluation of the friction pressure losses at near wellbore based on the difference
between the Bottom-hole injection pressure and the Instantaneous shut-in pressure. Though this
dynamic data cannot be expected to remain consistent from one set of perforations to another, a
thing worthy of mentioning is that the friction losses estimated from the surface pumping data and
that determined after retrieving the down-hole precision gauges came out to be drastically different
and were much greater than anticipated. A possible explanation was the highly viscous PAD
design coupled with the high rates pumped through 8000 ft. of 3 tubing string.
3. Fracture closure pressure; determined from the G-function plot of the decline curve done at the end
of the Mini-Frac. Due to the sub-hydrostatic value of the reservoir pressure, considerable
analytical difficulties were encountered in order to determine the accurate value of the closure
stress.
4. The formation showed very high fluid leak-off, something that has been observed in previous
open-hole Fracture treatments and is attributed to the existence of natural fractures in the South
Fuwaris field. The designed viscosity for the PAD and subsequent batch of fluids for the actual

SPE-178049-MS

fracturing had to be revised based on the data obtained during the Mini Frac.
5. The Net Pressure; it is the excess pressure in the fracturing fluid available to propagate the fracture
and simultaneously increase the fracture width i.e. the Net pressure must be kept higher than the
Fracture extension pressure. Its calculated as:
Net Pressure (Bottom-hole Injection Pressure) - (Pressure losses due to tortuosity and near
wellbore fraction) - (Closure stress)
At the point of instant shutdown, the Instantaneous shut-in pressure equals the Bottom-hole
Injection Pressure as the effect of all the friction related pressure losses reduce to zero. Hence, Net
Pressure is calculated as difference of the Instantaneous Shut-in Pressure and the Closure pressure.
The pumping schedule for the actual treatment per stage consisted of a Pre-flush (Brackish water
Mutual solvents) High viscosity PAD (for Fracture initiation) alternate batches of Main Acid (HCL
additives) and Diverter, followed by a Post flush of 7% KCL. The initial PAD and Acid stages provided
the geometry required for the fracture and the proceeding fluids were designed to divert and etch the
existing fracture. A pumping rate above 30 bbl. /min had to be maintained throughout the fracturing job
as the pumping pressure continued to drop over the course of fracture propagation. Each time the diverter
stages reached the fractured formation, a pressure build-up of around 150 psi was immediately observed
which was indicative of the desired objective achieved by the diversion procedure, so as to aid in the
fracture propagation along the fracture half-length by temporarily plugging the worm-holes created by the
acid reaction and keep the treatment pressure above the closure stress for the duration of the treatment
The Instantaneous shut-in pressures after the Main treatment had a difference of about 300 psi to 500 psi
from the Calibration tests, logical inference being the creation of etched surfaces contributing to the
observed pressure difference. The chemicals used in the treatment were proprietary products of the Acid
Fracturing Company, fine-tuned based on the specific requirements for the SF-AB treatment.
(Figures 2 and 3 depict the actual pumping schedule and the Step Rate test respectively.)

Figure 2Pumping Schedule of the Main Fracturing Treatment in SF-AB.

SPE-178049-MS

Figure 3Step Rate Test to determine Fracture Extension Pressure in SF-AB

Post fracturing treatment, the top-most fractured interval was isolated by a bridge plug from the rest
of the well that included two sets of perforated and fractured interval and the horizontal open-hole. The
objective was to conduct a post job evaluation by measuring the fracture effectiveness from the
upper-most single stage. Though it had not been planned this way from the start but as learning evolved
over time, the project was effectively deemed to consist of 3 phases. The 1st phase involved quantification
of production decline from the open-hole lateral, 2nd phase would involve fracturing the planned intervals
and isolating the top-most fractured interval from the rest of the well and the 3rd and final phase would
consist of commingled production from both the open-hole and the fractured intervals. The information
gathered from 2nd and 3rd phases would go a long way in understanding the fracture performance and
utilize it for subsequent job designs. Well testing from the 2nd phase clearly established that the sole
production from the upper fractured interval was around 700 STB. /day of oil, this was quite an
improvement when compared to the production figure of less than 300 STB. /day of Oil that was being
produced from around 2700 ft. of open-hole lateral prior to the fracturing job. Gradually, over a period
of 4 months, the production from the upper interval declined to around 500 STB. /day of Oil. Once phase
3 commenced around October 2014, it was observed that the total commingled production from the
fractured intervals in cased hole and the horizontal open-hole was initially around 1000 STB. /day of oil;
over 3 months the production gradually declined to a steady value of 800 STB. /day of oil.
(Figures 4 and 5 depict the production history and the Post-Fracture Completion schematic respectively.)

10

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Figure 4 Production History of the well SF-AB.

Figure 5Completion Schematic after the cased-hole Acid Fracturing job was conducted in SF-AB.

SPE-178049-MS

11

Conclusion
Considering the fact that SF-AB was producing less than 300 STB. /day of oil prior to the fracturing job
and assuming a sustained open-hole contribution, an initial gain of more than 700 STB. /day of oil from
just three cased-hole Frac intervals demonstrates that Acid Fracturing the cased hole tangent section is a
very cost effective and highly successful production enhancement technique. This technique is also a
major improvement over the conventional multi-stage fracture assemblies employed earlier, in terms of
cost savings and the efficiency of treatment execution along with the advantage of a complete bore-hole
access for future interventions. The success of the SF-AB pilot project has paved in the way for a similar
type of completion in future South Fuwaris wells. Current South Fuwaris wells are incorporating a liner
design length to accommodate any Acid Fracture jobs in the future. Evaluation is underway to include this
design aspect even for multilateral horizontal producers wherein a certain extended length of the
production liner above the side-track window would be allocated to accommodate the intended fracturing
intervals in future. Further treatments of similar kind with increased number of stages are being
undertaken and the learnings will be applied to shape future horizontal well completion strategy in South
Fuwaris.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Kuwait Gulf Oil company and the Saudi Arabian ministry of
Petroleum, Saudi Arabian Chevron for the permission to publish and present this paper. We would like
to further acknowledge our colleagues and business partners who have made innumerable contributions
towards this project.
Nomenclature
SF
South Fuwaris
ESP(s) Electrical Submersible Pumps.
STB. /day Stock Tank barrels per day.
POOH
Pull Out of Hole.

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