American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2018 - 83

SpecialReport: Gulf of Mexico Update

ERIK HOFFPAUIR is a completions
engineer at LLOG Exploration. With 13
years of industry experience, he joined
LLOG in 2012 as a completion engineer.
He holds a B.S. in petroleum engineering
from Louisiana State University and is
a licensed professional engineer in the
state of Louisiana.
NAIMA BESTAOUI-SPURR is product
line manager, fracturing, at Baker Hughes, a GE company, and subject matter
expert in proppants. Prior to this role,
she served in research and development
and technical services for proppants.
Her recent work in new product development includes neutral wettability proppants, ultralightweight proppants and
silica dust mitigation in fracturing.
Bestaoui-Spurr has been with Baker
Hughes, a GE company, for six years.
She previously worked for a technology
company developing new materials for
a broad range of applications. BestaouiSpurr holds a Ph.D. in materials science

FIGURE 5
Total Cleanup Time for Well using Neutral Wettability LWC Proppant
Versus Three Offset Wells
30
25.36
25
Total Cleanup Time (hrs)

quickly than normal for this field. In this
area, the total stimulation fluid recovery
time was approximately 24.5 hours using
a rig.
Figure 5 compares cleanup time between the well that used the neutral wettability LWC proppant with three offset
wells that used similar ceramic proppants
in their native surface states. The well
containing the neutral wettability LWC
proppant cleaned up about 10 hours faster
than offset wells containing similar proppants in their native states. Furthermore,
in most cases, not all stimulation fluids
were recovered from these wells, indicating
that some fluids were still trapped in the
proppant pack and creating some damage.
When the neutral wettability LWC
proppant was used, data obtained from
the deepwater well showed that all stimulation fluids pumped into the completion
were recovered at the end of the treatment,
which was a rare occurrence in surrounding deepwater fields.
In addition, more benefits were observed from shortening the cleanup time
and first oil breakthrough. Since LLOG
Exploration was using a rig for flowback,
flowing back the stimulation fluids was
quite expensive. This decrease in flowback

25.09

23.53

14.13

0
Offset A Well

Offset B Well

Offset C Well

Neutral Wettability
LWC 30/50 Well

time cut the period required to get the
stimulation fluids back by 43 percent
and enabled a much sooner breakthrough
of first oil production. This created an

economic benefit of saving 10 hours of
rig time, compared with the three offset
wells, and represented $438,000 in cost
savings.
r

from the Institute of Materials in Nantes
in France.

petroleum engineering from the University
of Louisiana at Lafayette.

DAVID STANLEY is a technical adviser
for completion and stimulation pumping
at Baker Hughes, a GE company. Before
joining Baker Hughes in 2011, he held
roles supporting completions for various
service companies. He holds a B.S. in
petroleum engineering from the University
of Louisiana at Lafayette and obtained
professional engineer licensure in 2016.

HANH NGUYEN is a research development and design scientist at Baker
Hughes, a GE company. Hanh has 17
years of industry experience and holds
a B.S. in biochemistry/biophysics from
the University of Houston.

MARTY USIE is the engineering manager for the Gulf of Mexico pressure
pumping production enhancement technical
team at Baker Hughes, a GE company.
He has 31 years of industry experience
with a primary focus on production enhancement. Usie has served on the board
of the Society of Petroleum Engineers
Evangeline Section, and was a committee
chair for the SPE International Symposium
& Exhibition on Formation Damage Control from 2000 to 2014. He holds a B.S. in

VANESSA WILLIAMS is a research
and development manager in the pressure
pumping international division at Baker
Hughes, a GE company. With seven
years of industry experience, she previously served as a product line manager
for production enhancement, product
development and portfolio manager for
pressure pumping and upstream chemicals, and as information technology project manager. Before joining Baker Hughes
in 2010, Williams worked in engineering
positions at National Instruments. She
holds a B.S. in biomedical and electrical
engineering from Vanderbilt University.
FEBRUARY 2018 83

American Oil and Gas Reporter - February 2018

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