Unconventional Solutions

With the wide range of potential damage mechanisms and damage inducing practices in unconventional reservoirs, PIC offers the optimization of applied chemistries and the improvement of mechanical intervention methods. 

PIC provides customized chemical systems that optimize conformance control, pressure maintenance, confinement response, and proppant stability. These chemistries can be applied as standalone systems or combined with other stimulation / remediation designs for the removal of organic or inorganic damage. With these approaches both in-place assets and new completions can be effectively treated. This allows for unconventional fields to be more effectively managed throughout their entire production life.

Combined approach to stimulate child wells and protect parent wells

Fracturing induced interwell interference can have significant impact on the economic success of a field and can be immediately damaging to the production of currently producing assets. The extent of experienced interference varies greatly between basins but is generally damaging towards the production of the parent well. PIC uses a dual treatment approach that involves protecting the parent well while optimizing the frac on the child well. The parent well is treated with a high stability foam and far field diverter to improve pressure maintenance and conformance control. During this process nanosurfactants are introduced for improved fluid recovery and an additional stimulation / hydrocarbon recovery benefit. The child well is treated with an improved frac design with staging of a far field diverter introduced in a foam preflush. The introduced frac fluid is designed with a nano-surfactant package to maximize fluid flowback and alter reservoir wettability for enhanced ultimate recovery.

Improved approach to achieve increased conformance and confinement

One of the simplest solutions for temporarily increasing the production of low energy wells is a conventional “huff-n-puff” treatment with nitrogen, CO2, or field available natural gas. These treatments can be very cost effective and easy to field implement but often have quickly diminishing returns. With modern unconventional completions the amount of contactable reservoir, pore volume of the proppant pack, and differential pressures throughout the producing interval; the ability to energize the reservoir can require substantial time and gas costs. With larger intervals, getting a predictable and repeatable stimulation benefit can be very difficult. PIC provides high stability foamers and far field diverters that more rapidly achieve stimulation pressure and increase treatment conformance. PIC utilizes advanced lab analyses, interfacial tension (IFT) and contact angle (CA)  to tailor chemistries for specific minerologies and water/oil systems. With reservoir compatible water wetting surfactants the amount of released and recoverable hydrocarbon increases as compared to simple gas injection methods.

Water encroachment and water block remediation

Water encroachment and trapping can severely restrict the productive interval of conventional and unconventional wells. In unconventional wells the increased water sensitivity and lower permeability can make water encroachment a production ending phenomenon. With inefficient frac fluid recovery the presence of water saturated near wellbore areas can severely limit the producing zone of a long lateral completion. PIC has high viscosity gas rich systems for the sweeping of watered out areas and the reestablishing of a gas saturation. Low desorption surface modification chemistries leave an optimally wet condition to recover the encroached water at lower energy requirements to maintain production. Systems to lower the surface tension of introduced fluids and contactable fluids allow for increased fluid recovery following fracturing or remediation for water block.

Frac sand treatment to increase consolidation and prevent flowback

Due to the increased incidence of in-field mining and wet sand proppant, the rate of proppant flowback has increased substantially. This flowed back material results in loss of production as well as compounds surface flow assurance issues. Proppant accumulation in tanks and topside piping increases flowing backpressure, can act as a substrate for increased microbial growth and corrosion, and can act as a nucleation point for scale. PIC has a sand conglomeration chemistry that is resin and epoxy free to increase the stability of the proppant pack and prevent proppant flowback. The system can be introduced during the initial completion operation or as a remediation method at any point during the life cycle of the well.