Northwestern University Technological Institute
Tight Shale Gas-Hydraulic Fracturing
Seminar Series
How can we Greatly Improve
Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency
Sidney Green
Schlumberger Senior Advisor & Univ. of Utah Research Professor
April 30, 2013

The Big Invention

10 feet
10 microns
10 inches

“A Picture is worth 10,000 words”, but the correct mental picture of hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wells is priceless
Sidney Green, London Shale Gas Summit, 2010

3-D
Fracture
Simulation
-100
-200
-300
100
0
-400
0 500 1000
Fracture Length (ft)
1500
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02

Ideal Case Horizontal Well
Fracture Stimulation h
L

Fracture
Complexity
After Closure

Fracture Intersection with Plane of
Weakness

.
Laboratory Large Block Tests
9

10
Homogeneous
Rock Gives
“Penny” Shaped
Fracture

Large Block Test
11

Block with Inclined Discontinuities
12

New Fracture System
• 25% less water and 40% less proppant used
• Saved already 5 million barrels of water and 700 million
pounds of proppant
• Saved 30,000 proppant and water hauling road journeys
• Average increase in production greater than 20%
• Over 320 wells treated; virtually no well screen-outs