Summer is almost over, and school has started for most of us. Join us as we start the 2024-25 SPE Speaker Season with a presentation from Adam Colaib with Seismos who will present "How Important is Friction to Frac Economics: Real-Time Pipe Friction and Perforation Efficiency Optimization Using Surface Based Acoustic Measurements". In this talk, Adam will discuss an acoustic based alternative to current technologies and how this technology has been able to validate the delivery of accurate real-time measurements of pipe friction and perforation friction.

Bio:

Adam Colaib is a business development engineer with Seismos. He helps operators across the US optimize their completion designs and operations by utilizing non-invasive acoustic technology to monitor the effectiveness of the frac through downhole measurements in real-time. This allows operators to make informed decisions on-the-fly to enhance well productivity and reduce costs immediately before multiplying these benefits across the remaining wells in the program.

Before his current role, Adam spent years as field engineer and later as an operations analyst for a pressure pumping company where he helped optimize crew efficiency and the maintenance of their frac fleets. Adam is a P.E. license holder and received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas Permian Basin.

Abstract:

Poor perforation efficiency and excessively high treating pressures arise from subsurface problems that lead to increased pumping costs and cluster overcapitalization in the range of $400k/well upfront. This is before taking into account the lost reserves which in current designs can be worth in the range of $1 MM+ per well in lost NPV due to poor perforation efficiency and cluster uniformity based on empirical findings.

Historically, most technologies that offer a way to evaluate these issues have been either highly invasive, expensive, or unreliable which is why in 2022, Seismos, in conjunction with a major operator, went about field testing a new acoustic based alternative that only requires high rate sensors located at the wellhead. Through numerous wells, including those with bottomhole gauges, downhole imaging, and permanently cemented fiber, the acoustic friction analysis of rapid planned and unplanned rate changes (3 bpm+) was validated in its ability to deliver accurate real-time measurements of pipe friction and perforation friction - a crucial step towards the proper calculation of perforation efficiency and its time dependent counterpart, uniformity.

The presentation will walk through these validations and specific use cases from various basins.