Provides Revealing Insights Into Completion Efficiency By Curtis Jerrom and Ashley Cote CALGARY-Fracture treatments and sand placement within the propped reservoir volume have always been at the crux of the success or failure of unconventional wells. One common question is whether bigger is necessarily better when it comes to pumping frac sand (and fluid). How about pump pressures? Do higher pressures equate with improved well performance? These two factors-frac sand volume and pump pressure-are critical in terms of well productivity and recovery rates. The size and orientation of the perforations are a key determinant of both sand placement and breakdown pressures. To analyze how the internal expansion or growth in diameter of perforations how can influence fracture efficiency, a highresolution downhole camera was run in a horizontal well in the Montney Shale formation in northern British Columbia. The horizontal wellbore has 4.0-inch inside diameter L80 casing cemented in place to provide continuous isolation. True vertical depth is 3,408 feet with a downward toe at 6,454 ft and small rises or undulations throughout the lateral measuring no more than 20-35 feet from the high to the low. For this wellbore, the clusters were small and not orientated. It was completed in 18 stages using the plug-and-perf method. All perforations were shot with limited-entry tools using three perforations per cluster and five clusters per stage with 60-degree phasing (perforation every 3.14 inches) with 23-gram deep penetration charges. FEBRUARY 2020 29