American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2020 - 55

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SpecialReport: The Innovators
a pattern. Four or five stages look great,
but the next two or three go poorly as a
result of subtle geological changes, stress
buildup or other reasons. As this pattern
repeats, it leaves a third or even half the
lateral understimulated or overstimulated, "
Adamopoulos warns. " This happens because minute changes in rock properties
skew fracture behavior. By allowing operators to adapt to those changes, Seismos
can greatly improve production. "
In early applications across the Eagle
Ford, Permian and Haynesville, real-time
measurements have helped operators increase wells' six-month cumulative production by eight or nine barrels of oil
equivalent per foot of lateral, Adamopoulos
reports. " With oil prices at $40, that often
translates to more than $4 million per
well per year, " he calculates.
In many applications, he adds, the
system saves money by showing operators
how to get a better fracture network by
doing less. " The AI agent correlates treatment data to fracture system properties
for every type of geological profile and
dynamically compares the current well
to offset well systems to identify the
point of diminishing returns, " Adamopoulos describes. " For example, the system
can identify when to stop pumping 100
mesh proppant and how much time it
will take to reach the maximum rate. "
The acoustic monitoring tool is easy
to deploy, he assures. " Installing the instrument on the wellhead takes less than
30 minutes and it runs continuously at
the back end without introducing any
downtime or requiring any changes to
operations, " Adamopoulos says. " In fact,
people tell us they forget it's there
except when the system alerts them
about understimulation. "
Frac Hit Detection
As part of its service, Seismos can install its device on nearby wells to watch
for frac hits. Because the company looks
at acoustics as well as offset pressure/strain,
the data used by existing solutions, it
offers much greater resolution and adds
granularity to interpretations of interwell
communication, Adamopoulos reports.
" Our acoustic technology takes 4,000
samples a second rather than one, 10 or
100, " he says. " Most importantly, the inherent nature of the acoustic measurement
allows us to differentiate the type of communication in high detail.
" The system sees slight dilations or
closures in the offset fracture network

to distinguish between a tip-to-tip stress
effect, a fracture bypass and a hydraulic
connection, " Adamopoulos describes.
" By providing information in real time,
it lets the operator back off before irreversible damage to the stimulated reservoir occurs. "
Seeing Down Hole
After building and selling an industrial
imaging company that developed optical
imaging systems that became the industry
standard for performing quality control
on cardboard boxes, the founders of DarkVision Technologies Inc. partnered with
an oil industry veteran to tackle a new
challenge: providing ultrahigh-resolution
images and measurements inside oil and
gas wells.
" We were very familiar with optical
imaging technologies, so at first, we
planned to develop a next-generation
camera or laser scanner for inspecting
wells, " recalls Stephen Robinson, the
company's CEO. " However, the more
we talked with operators, the more we
understood how optical imaging's requirement for clear fluids would fundamentally limit what we could do. "
To deliver high-resolution images and
measurements even in murky fluid, DarkVision looked at tools and technologies
used in the medical industry and other
fields before deciding to base its platform
on acoustic imaging, Robinson relates.
" Our acoustic technology can see

details as small as a quarter of a millimeter, which is roughly a hundred
times better than traditional acoustic
imaging, " he reports. " Operators are using the technology to find well integrity
issues such as corrosion, ovality, parted
connections, cracks or deformation in
the casing. We can also show stuck objects that need to be fished out, or diagnose problems such as scale buildup,
even in opaque fluids where camera
systems cannot operate. "
The imaging tools also can help evaluate completion designs, Robinson adds.
" Operators routinely run our tools to
measure erosion in each perforation,
which is a strong indicator of proppant
and fluid distribution. The erosion across
each stage should be uniform if the
completion design succeeded at distributing proppant evenly, " he explains.
" Numerous operators now periodically
deploy the tool as a feedback loop for
their completions to understand their
hydraulic fracturing programs' effectiveness and efficiency. "
According to Robinson, the completion evaluation runs highlighted a previously unknown problem that has been
seen across the industry. " In many wells,
the casing around the frac plugs had
been eroded or completely breached, "
he warns. " We think the plugs' sealing
elements are eroding during the frac,
which creates paths around the plugs
that wash out the casing. "

To help operators identify well integrity issues,
evaluate completions and perform fishing operations, DarkVision Technologies Inc. has developed
downhole tools that capture high-resolution images
through opaque fluids. In addition to perforations,
DarkVision says this image shows casing damage
at the same depth as a frac plug, a common problem the industry is striving to address.

NOVEMBER 2020 55

American Oil and Gas Reporter - November 2020

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