Characterization of Fracture-Driven Interference and the Application of Machine Learning to Improve Operational Efficiency

Abstract Frac hits are a form of fracture-driven interference (FDI) that occur when newly drilled wells communicate with existing wells during completion, and which may negatively or positively affect production. An analytics and machine-learning approach is presented to characterize and aid understanding of the root causes of frac hits. The approach was applied to a field data set and indicated that frac hits can be quantitatively attributed to operational or subsurface parameters such as spacing or depletion. The novel approach analyzed a 10-well pad comprising two ‘parent’ producers and eight ‘child’ infills. The analysis included the following data types: microseismic, completion, surface and bottomhole pressure, tracers, production, and petrophysical logs. The method followed a three-step process: 1) use analytics to assess interference during the hydraulic fracturing and during production, 2) catalogue or extract feature engineering attributes for each stage (offset distance, petrophysics, completion, and depletion) and 3) apply machine-learning techniques to identify which attributes (operations or subsurface) are significant in the causation and/or enhancement of inter-well communication. Information fusion with multi-modal data was also used to determine the probability of well-to-well communication. The data fusion technique integrated multiple sensor data to obtain a lower detection error probability and a higher reliability by using data from multiple sources. The results showed that the infill wells completed in closest proximity to the depleted parents exhibit strong communication. The machine-learning classification creates rules that enable better understanding of control variables to improve operational efficiency. Furthermore, the methodology lends a framework that enables the development of visualization, continuous learning, and real-time application to mitigate communication during completions.