American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 71

Shale Resource Science

Innovations Streamline Completions
As operators continue to increase
lateral lengths and proppant volumes in
horizontal wells, they are asking the companies that provide completion equipment
and services to deliver products that can
work longer and harder. Those companies
have answered the call.
At the same time, completion companies say they are refining old ideas and
proving new ones to improve safety, efficiency, and production. Their innovations
cover every aspect of the completion
process, from the proppant itself to perforating and pumping.
Joseph Sites, president and chief executive officer of Allied-Horizontal Wireline, says that with prices and activity increasing, now is a great time to introduce
new technology. "We are seeing producers
shift from focusing on price to looking
for partners that can deliver value and
lower the total cost of operations," he reports.
For Allied-Horizontal, which operates
in the Marcellus, Mid-Continent, Eagle
Ford, Permian Basin, Niobrara and Bakken
regions, delivering value has meant expanding its staff. "From August to December, we increased our field crew count
50 percent and hired 160 people to meet
immediate demand, and we still are ramping up," Sites says.
To provide better service, Sites notes
the company is testing a greaseless pressure control system. "With this system,
the cable is coated in a specialized polymer
that allows it to run in and out of the well
without grease," he describes. "In addition
to eliminating the safety risks and hassle
associated with handling grease, that reduces the coefficient of friction, allowing
the cable to make it in and out of the
well more easily.
"Because we will be able to get the
cable farther into the well without it
getting stuck, the new system will allow
operators to use plug-and-perf technology
in longer laterals," Sites says. "It increases
plug-and-perf's maximum horizontal
length by 2,000-3,000 feet."
Allied-Horizontal began field trials
near the end of third quarter 2016 and
hopes to commercialize it during first
quarter 2017, Sites relates.

For more than a year, he says, AlliedHorizontal has been using a novel and
more effective perforating gun geometry.
"With a traditional geometry, the guns
create distinct tunnels that are perpendicular to the wellbore and often contain
axial fractures. The sharp angle between
the tunnels and the wellbore applies
friction to the fluid, increasing the necessary pump pressure and the chance of
a screen-out.
"Our new FocusShot™ perforating
systems reduce friction by angling the
guns toward each other to create perforation tunnels that converge on a plane perpendicular to the casing," he continues.
"Focusing the shaped charge's energy
minimizes axial fracturing and therefore
the amount of friction the water must
overcome. This allows operators to reduce
their horsepower requirements by using
a lower treating pressure, or to use the
same horsepower to put more proppant
into the fracture."
The more proppant that goes into the
formation, the higher the production,
Sites suggests. "Using the FocusShot gun
geometry, we have seen production increases between 12 and 18 percent," he
reports.
The geometry has been tried in West
Texas, South Texas, the Marcellus, and
the Mid-Continent, Sites notes. "In every
application, it has performed as good as
or better than a traditional design," he
touts. "The cost associated with using it
is less than 0.5 percent of a well's au-

thorization for expenditure, so it pays for
itself rapidly."
Durable Pumps
The Thunder series of pumps from
Gardner Denver increases the time between major overhauls from 5,000 to
10,000 hours, reports Greg Hash, the
company's director of engineering. He
points out that this brings the pump's
maintenance cycles in line with those of
the engine and transmission, minimizing
downtime.
"The new pumps increase stroke length
from the typical eight inches to 11 inches,
meaning that for every rotation of the
crankshaft, the plunger travels 11 inches
forward and backward instead of eight,"
Hash says. "The 37 percent longer stroke
lets the pumps deliver the same amount
of work at a slower speed, reducing wear
and tear on the pump and consumables
such as valves, seats and packing."
The long stroke is one of many factors
that contribute to the pump's durability,
Hash says. "By using computer-aided
tools, we have come up with designs and
geometries that reduce stress on the
pump," he illustrates. "We also developed
a coating that is self-lubricating and resists
wear and abrasion, extending the life of
critical power end components such as
bearings and crossheads."
To minimize downtime associated with
maintenance, Hash says Gardner Denver
has made several improvements to the
pump's design. "On the power end, we

Max (Pressure) vs. Max (Sand Vol)

Max (Pressure)

9,500
9,000
Max (Pressure)

By Colter Cookson

Conventional
FocusShot

8,500
8,000
7,500
7,000
6,500
6,000
3,900

4,100

4,300
4,500
Max (Sand Volume) Sacks

4,700

4,900

Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services employs a proprietary perforating gun geometry
called FocusShot™, which converges the perforating tunnels on a plane perpendicular
to the casing axis at a fixed distance from the casing outside diameter (left). By reducing
perforation tunnels' tortuosity and therefore the friction imposed on the fracturing fluid,
the company says the geometry allows operators to place more proppant at lower pressures (right).

JANUARY 2017 71

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017

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