---

Society of Petroleum Engineers

6200 North Centra/ Expwy.
Dallas, Texas 75206

;~;E;ER

SPE6379

CurrentCompletion
Practices
in TightReservoirs
by
Kale Webster, Member SPE-AIME

THIS PAPER IS SUBJECT TO CORRECTION

@ Copyright

1977

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, inc.

This paper was prepared forthe 1977 Permian Basin Oil and Gas Recovery Conference of the Societyof
PetroleumEngineers ofAIME, heldinMldland,
Texas, March l(kl 1, 1977. Permission tocopyisrestricted
toan
abstract ofnotmore than 300words. liiustrations maynotbe copied, Theabstractshouid
contain conspicuous
acknowledgement of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere afterpub!ication in the
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is
usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate lournai, provided agreement to give proper credit is
made, Discussion of this paper is invited.

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the current completion methods being used in tight or low
permeability reservoirs of the Austin Chalk,
Canyon Sand and Morrow Sand.
Formation damage has been a major consideration in all of these reservoirs and has
strongly influenced the drilling mud, testing!
cementing, perforating and stimulation. All
of these factors influence the completion
practices and are described for each reservoir.
The Austin Chalk in the Pearsall Field
is often described as producing from natural
fractures. The method of finding these frac.tures includes coring, logging, and in some
cases slant hole drilling through the pay
section to intersect more of the fractures.
Three basic fracturing fluids and methods
have been used to treat the Austin Chalk and
the average treatment now costs $35,000.
The Canyon Sands of Sutton and Ozona
Counties, Texas areair or gas drilled. Most
of the wells are fracture treated using the
nballsealer multistage and gelled water
References and illustrations at end of paper.

technique or a gelled weak acid and 1imited

entry. COZ is used in many of the gelled
acid treatments which include non-emulsifiers~
iron stabilizers and KCL to prevent clay
swel1ing.
Most of the Morrow Sand wells of eastern New Mexico are drilled with very low
water loss muds, drill stem tested and then
cemented with low water loss cement using
KCL in the water to prevent cement filtragq
damage to the formation. The most common
method of perforating is through tubing with
a differential into the wellbore. Some wells
are completed natural but most respond to a
small acid clean-up treatment. Data from
a study of field results are included in the
paper. Many of the completion problems attributed to formation damage were due to
poorly develwed porosity and permeability
often associated with edge wells. This means
well cost could be substantially reduced by
re-evaluating the mud, casing, tubing and
stimulation programs.
INTRODUCTION
This paper describes the current
pletion methods being used in tight
permeability reservoirs in the Austin
near Pearsall, Texas, the Canyon Sand

coror low
Chalk
near

94

CURRENT COMPLETION PRACTICES IN TIGHT RESERVOIRS

Sonora and Ozona, Texas, and the Morrow Gas

Sand of New Mexico. Formation damage has
been a major consideration in all of these
reservoirs and has greatly influenced the
drilling fluids, perforating, acidizing and
fracture treating. In some cases, prevention
of formation damage has been overly emphasized and greatly increased well costs.
AU!71N CHALK

The Pearsall Field was discovered in

1933 and is located about 60miles southwest
of San Antonio in Frio County, Texas. Production is from the Austin Chalk which is
encountered at a depth of about 5500 feet
near the town of Pearsall. The structure is
an anticline with a large nose plunging to
the southwest across the central portion of
Frio County, Top of the pay is 1500 to 2000
feet deeper to the southwest near Divot,
Texas. Gross pay section is 350 to 450 feet
in thickness and is generally divided into
an upper and lower with 20 to 40 feet of
shale separation.
Limited development took place from 1933
through 1941 and the wells were completed by
shooting in the open hole with nitroglycerin.
Further development took place between 1948
and 1956 and acidizing was used to stimulate
the wells.
The recent chalk play started in late
1974as a resultof higher oil prices and
the use of hydraulic fracturing. Development
has been near the town of Pearsall and in the
southwestern part of the county toward Divit,
Texas. More recent dri?ling has moved into
Zavala, Dimmitt and LaSalle Counties, and also to the northeast into Atascosa and Wilson
Counties as shown on Map No. 1. Leasing has
been strong further to the northeast which
could extend the play into Robertson and Madison Counties north of Houston. The play has
been described in more detail in recent trade
journal arttcles (1) (2).

The Austin Chalk is an Upper Cretaceous

Marl and is often described as a tight formation with no primary porosity that produces
from a natural fracture system. This is partially erroneous, as some of the few cbres
available show a matrix porosity of 8% with
penneabilityof 0.1 to 0.2md.
Vertical fractures and numerous thin shale laminations are
observed in the core. This probably explains
the high initial production with very rapid
decline. The oil in the natural fractures is
produced rapidly, then oil from the low permeability matrix starts feeding into the
fractures at a slow rate.

SPE 6379

Drilling
Most operators drill to *200 feet and
cement 8-5/8 inch surface casing. Drilling
continues to total depth with 7-7/8 inch
bits. Most wells are drilled without unusual problems to the chalk. The mud properties are usually adjusted to give a very low
wa::o~oss while drilling through the pay
The low water loss is to prevent
shale c;ve in problems and is considered
essential by some operators in preventing
formation damage to the Austin Chalk. Lost
circulation into the natural fractures of
the chalk can be expensive if the mud weight
is allowed to exceed 9.30r 9.4 lb/gal.
This is probably one of the better problems
to encounter as manyof the good wells have
lost circulation.
Deviated Holes
A few operators have drilled deviated
holes attempting to cut more natural fractures. The hole angle may be as much as 30
or 40 degrees from vertical in the chalk.
The deviated holes are expensive to drill
and will cause excessive sucker rod and tubing wear when the wells are placed on the
pump.
Mud Logginq
Mud logging units are used by many operators. They provide information on the oil
and gas shows, the type of formation and the
drilling rate. This type of information is
useful in conjunction with the open hole logs
and is especially useful in stepout or wildc;t wells.
Q@Ml.
The open hole logging programs vary
widely, but the most common are the induction, laterolog and a fracture finding log,
Some programs include one or more of the
porosity measurement type logs along with
a gamma ray log and in some cases, computer
analysis of a combination of these logs. The
logging programs are being influenced bya
mixture of operators and industry personnel
from the Gulf Coast and from the hard rock
country of West.Texas. This may result in
a combination ~f the best of both areas and
an improved evaluation logging program for
the Austin Chalk. However, most operators
feel the present logs do not accurately provide the needed information to determine the
qualityor productive capability of the well.. .
For this reason, production casing is run
and a completion is attempted on a very high
percentage of the wells drilled.
.

.=R

KALE WEBSTER

SPE 6379
Cementinq.

Obtaining a primary cement job around

the production casing has not been reported
to be a serious problem other than in isolated cases. Sufficient cement is used to cover
the pay section and an additional few hundred
feet, A second stage of cement is usually
needed to protect the fresh water of the
Wilcox Sands that may be as deep as 3200 feet.
A DY tool is run in the casing string to a
depth just below the Wilcox and cement is
circulated from this point back to the surface.
This eliminates the expense of an intermediate
casing string but does involve the cost of
drilling out theDV tool.
Some operators are now running a sliding
sleeve in the casing string in place of the
DV tool. The sleeve is run into the hole in
the closed position which permits conventional cementing across the pay section. An opening tool is then run on tubing, the sleeve
opened and cement is pumped through the sleeve
and circulated back to the surface. The
sleeve is closed and drilling out is eliminated.
Perforating
Most wells are perforated with jet guns
using 40 to 60 holes to facilitate the limited entry technique of fracture treating the
pay section. Some operators will evenly
space the perforations across the entire pay
section. Others use peaks or criteria from
the logs to pick the points to perforate.
Some wells have been perforated and
treated in the lower portion of the chalk
section, a bridging plug set above the lower
zone, and then the upper zone is perforated
and treated, This is an expensive procedure
and most wells are now perforated across the
entire pay section and frac treated with one
setup of the equipment.
A few wells have recently been perforat,~dwith big hole burr-free guns and fracture
treated using the multistage ball sealer technique to divert the treatment to different
intervals.
Fracture Treatments
Mostof the early frac treatments in
the Pearsall Field were oil-water emulsions
with volumes of 20Q,000 to 300,000 gallons
and sand concentrations of about 2 lb/gal.
The oil-water emulsions gradually gave way
to gelled water and larger volumes of 300,000
to 400,000 gallons which are usually pumped
at 50 to60 bbl/min. The injection rate is
designed to fit the number of perforations

95
.-

and insure treating all the pay section by

the limited entry technique. An acid and
ball sealer treatment is pumped prior to
fracture treating for the purpose of breaking open the perforations to insure that
each hole will accept some of the fracture
treatment. The gelled water frac jobs can
be divided into two basic approaches. Some
operators use a very thin gelled water and
low sand concentrations, where others use a
more viscous gelled water to carry a sand
concentration of 2 or 3 lb/gal. Various
combinations of thesetwo methods with alternating fast and slow pump rates are also
used by some operators. The average cost
of a gelled water frac job is about $35,000.
The gel and other additives used in the
frac fluid are mixed continuously while pumping the large volumes from plastic lined pits
directly into the well. The disadvantage is
that any problems or mistakes of mixing are
hidden as they are pumped into the reservoir
without being observed at the surface. Lumps
or small balls of the dry gel material can
cause severe plugging in the fracture system.
Amultistage method of fracing (3) has
been used to treat recent wells in the chalk.
This method consists of perforating each zone
with the same number of large diameter burrfree holes. Sealer balls are used between
each stage to divert the treatment to the
next zone. The number of sealer balls to
use between each stage is the same as the
number of holes per zone. The water used in
these treatments was gelled and complexed in
tanks prior to pumping into the wells. A
good gel mixture was obtained after considerable laboratory testing of the water and
gel materials being used.
The multistage method is less expensive
due to eliminating the need for high injection rates. A well with two intervals or
zones that requires 60 bbl/min. by the limited entry technique would only receive 30
bbl/min. into each zone. The multistage
treatment would only require 30 bbl/min. into
one zone, diverting with ball sealers and
treating the second zone at 30 bbl/min. This
eliminates much of the excessive pressure
caused by pipe and perforation friction and
greatly reduces the hydraulic horsepower requirements. Cost for this type treatment
averages about $15,000.
The main benefits of hydraulic fracturing the Austin Chalk are as follows:
1;

The hydraulic induced fracture system

is vertical and connects the natural
fractures and thin zones of porosity.
-,- .

..

CURRENT COMPLETION PRACTICES IN TIGHT RESERVOIRS

OK
7-

SPE 6379*

2.

3.

Skin damage caused by-the drilling fluid

and cement is eliminated when the fracture passes through the damaged rock and
extends out into the reservoir.
The fracture extending into the reservoir
has the effect of a larger well bore and
results in greater productivity and a
larger drainage area.

Any of the previously discussed fracturing methods will provide these benefits. For
this reason it becomes very difficult toobserve meas~rable production differences. The
best wells are going to be those drilled in
portions of the field where porosity and natural fractures are best developed.
Re~epves
Many poor wells have been completed due
to our inability to determine well quality
without setting pipe and production testing.
This has greatly reduced the average wells
reserves to an estimated 30,000 bbls. However, wells drilled in the better producing
areas will probably have ultimate recovery of
60,000 to 80,000 bbls, and exceptionally good
wells may be double this value.
Economics
The cost of a completed well varies between $200,000 and $300,000. There appears
to be very little relationship between expense and the quality ofa well. The good
wells are in areas with better developed
reservoir properties, In order to find these
areas, the operator needs the financing to
drill a reasonable number of evaluation wells.
Conclusions
Much experimentation has taken place
the past two years including drilling, mud,
logging, cementing, acidizing and fracing.
It is time to choose the more desirable programs, reduce the cost and continue with
development drilling where the economic return
is reasonable. This approach has resulted in
the drilling and completion of wells into the
tanks for $200,000 each.

CANYON SAND
The present development programs in the
Canyon Sands of Sutton, Edwards and Ozona
Counties, Texas started in 1970 just prior
to the increasing gas prices. Most of the
experimental phase has passed, and the present programs consist of an orderly drilling
and completion plan. There are about 80wells
drilled per month and approximately 20% are

dry holes. The sand is found ata depth of

5000 near the town of Sonora, Texas. The
gross sand thickness rapidly thickens from
100 to 1000 feet as the structure dips to
the southwest to a depth of 9000 feet.
Drillin~
The wells are drilled with air which
provides a means of observing gas productiofi
when a productive sand zone is drilled. Several gas increases are often observed while
drilling through the lenticular sands and the
depths recorded. Water and soap are injected
with the air to remove the cuttings and maintain circulation when water productive sands
are encountered. Some operators drill to the
top of the Canyon Sands, then use gas to
drill through the pay section. This is to
prevent the possibility ofa downhole fire
if liquid hydrocarbons are encountered in any
of the sands.

A temperature log is run in the open

hole while the well is flowing and is used
to determine which of the many lenticular
sands are gas productive. The basic open
hole logs consist of one or more of the
porosity logs, gamma ray logs, caliper logs
and some operators will run electric logs.
Cementin~
It is unusual to enc~unter channels or
cement bonding failures across the pay section. The air drilled holes are loaded with
brine water, the casing run and then cemented.
A mud filter cake is not formed across the
pay section as only brine water is placed in
the hole after air drilling. This provides
near ideal conditions to obtain a good primary cement job.
Some operators run the casing in the dry
air drilled hole, then pump water in front of
the cement to wet and wash the formation.
This also provides good cement jobs as long
as sufficient water and cement are used to
stop all gas from flowing into the well and
mixing with the cement.
Fracture Treatinq
Many different types of fracture treatments have been tried in the Canyon Sands,
including gas frac, foam frac, gelled alcohol,
gelled condensate, oil-water emulsion, gelled
water, and gelled weak acid. Gelled water
and weak acid is the predominately used frac
fluid at this time.

.,

SPE 6379

KALE WEBSTER

One independent oil company has completed several hundred wells in the Canyon Sands
(4). Their completion method consists of
multistage ball sealer treating with gelled
fresh w~ter. The sands are perforated in acid
with burr-free holes. Ball sealers are mixed
in small volumes of 15% HCL acid between each
stage of the treatment to divert into each
zone. Three to five stages are used in most
wells. The frac fluid consists of guar gum
gelled and complexed in frac tanks to give a
viscosity of 30 cps. The propping agent consists of 1 pound per gallon of 20-40 mesh sand.
The treatment volume is 36,000 to 60,000 gallons, depending on the number of stages. Tubing is run and the well is swabbed to a flowing condition. Cost for this type of treatment will be about $10,000 to $12,000, depending upon the volume.
Another method used to stimulate the
Canyon Sand consists of limited entry perforating and a separate acid ball out treatment
to open the perforations. Fracture treating
follows using a combin~tion of limited entry
and ball sealers scattered throughout the
treatment to divert and treat the various
sand sections. The treating fluid is a weak
(3 to 5%) gelled acid. Other additives such
as KCL, surfactants and iron stabilizers are
added to the fluid. The propping agent is 1
and 2 lbs/gal of 20-40 mesh sand, and fluid
volumes average about 60,000 gallons. Carbon
dioxide is blended into the frac fluid at
1000 scf/bbl and is used to energize the fluid
to give a rapid recoveryof the fluid after
the treatment. However, the well must be
killed after clean-up or recovery of the
frac fluid to install tubing. An alternate
to killing for tubing installation is to
frac down tubing and/or the annulus at reduced
injection rates and with high friction pressure. Some operators leave the C02 outof the
treatment to eliminate this problem. Cost of
a gelled acid treatment is about $25,000 PIuS
$5,000 for the C02.
There is obviously considerable concern
by some operators to prevent formation damage.
A weak gelled acid is used as the frac fluid
to provide a low ph and to insure thegell
material breaks and lets the fluid return at
about the viscosity of water. Potasium chloride is added to prevent clay swelling in the
reservoir. Surfactents are added to prevent
emulsions. Iron stabilizers are to prevent
damage from the iron (siderite) released from
the formation when acid is used. CO is added to provide rapid recovery of the $rac
fluids. Additional safety factors are required as there is added risk of injur,yto
personnel should a mechanical failure occur
while pumping C02 or any expandable gas with
the treatment.

97

Other operators feel that the simple

and far less expensive gelled water treatments provide good stimulation. rheiron
problem does not.exist when only water is
placed on the formation to mix with the 40
to 60% connate water that exists in the reservoir. Proper mixing of the gel in tanks
prior to treating will insure a clean break
when the fluid is exposed to the reservoir
temperature, Swabbing will be required in
most cases after installing the production
tubing and wellhead; however, it will not
be necessary to kill the well after it is
flowing.
Conclusions
There are two bas?c methods used to fracture stimulate wells in the Canyon Sand. The
difference is based on the concern for prevention of formation damage and economics.
The gelled acid treatments include several additives to prevent or reduce formation
damage, The cost is $25,000 to $30,000 and
is greatly increased by the procedure and
additives used.
The gelled water treatments are far less
chemically complex as the additives are held
to a minimum. Operators using this method
are not overly concerned with formation damage
and place more emphasis on lower stimulation
cost. The average cost of a gelled water
treatment is $10,000 to $12,000.
MORROW SAND
The Pennsylvanian age Morrow Sands are
found at a depth of7,000 to 12,000 feet in
eastern New Mexico. The rock is a course
grained, well cemented sandstone, with few or
nr~natural fractures. The productive interval usually consists of two zones, each about
10 feet in thickness. The formation is considered to be extremely sensitive and very easily damaged by drilling fluid, water or acid.
Drilling Fluid
The mud system used to drill through the
pay section usually has a very low water loss
of about 5CC with 2 to 5% KCL to inhibit clay
swelling.
Dr?ll Stem Test
About 80% of the wells are drill stem
tested. The flow data, formation damage factor and logs are used in making the decision
to run pipe or abandon. A damage factor between 2 and 10 is comnon,
Some operators do not use !ISTSas they

-..

CURRENT COMPLETION PRACTICES IN TIGHT RESERVOIRS

cm

SPE 6379

feel the fluid dropped back on the formation

after testing causes excessive damage.
Cementin9
Sufficient cemenk for 1000 to 1500 feet
of fill is pumped around the 4% or 5% inch
production casing. A low water loss cement
with KCL is used to reduce filtrate damage to
the formation. Lost circulation is nota
problem while cementing the primary casing
and chanelling or communication between zones
is seldom reported.

pecovery, Others use a gelled weak acid (3

to 5%) with 1 lb/gal of sand and C02.
Many of the wells frac treated are edge
wells with very low porosity and permeability. Deliverability after acidizing is low
and they are fractured to exhaust all possi-.
bilities for obtaining commercial production.
This results in a low success ratio. However,
wells with moderate sand development respond
favorably to fracturing. This indicates
careful selection of frac candidates is the
key to success in fracture treating the Morrow

Perforating
Most of the wells are perforated through
tubing and below a packer. Two and seven
eighths inch tubing is run in many wells to
provide sufficient inside diameter to permit
the passage of deep penetrating, larger diameter perforating guns. Many operators swab
the fluid out of the tubing and then perforate through tubing with the pressure differential into the wellbore. This keeps fluid off
the formation and is considered to be beneficial in preventing formation damage.

Study Area
An evaluation of field results from wells
in the South Carlsbad Area provides information that could be used to modify some of the
drilling and completion practices. The wells
in the study area are shown on Map No. 2.
Following is a summation of the data:
1.

a.

A few operators perforate overbalanced

with casing carrier guns. The hole is loaded
with a clean fluid and acid is placed across
the section to be perforated. Casing carrier
guns are used to provide maximum penetration.
This lets the perforations soak in acid to
remove cement and mud damage while the tubing
is installed.

b.

c.

Acidizing

d.

A few Morrow Sand wells are completed

natural or with no treatment after perforating. However, most wells are acidized and
respond very favorably to small acid cleanup treatments. The acid volumes are 1000
to 4000 gallons with ball sealers to divert
acid and open all the holes. Additives used
in the acid are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Clay stabilizers
Iron stabilizers
Non-emulsifiers
Fine suspension agents

The wells inside the circled.area (Map 2]

were Morrow Sand producing wells.

e.
f.
9.

2.

Four small prodwcers were completed outside the circled area (Map No. 2).
a.

Nitrogen or CO is used in most treatments to energize tte acid for rapid fluid
removal.
b.
Fracture Treatinq
A small percentage of the wells are fracture treated. Some use a very viscous KCL
base water frac of 20,000 to 40,000 gallons
with sand concentrations up to 4 pounds per
gallon and C02 as an energizer for fast fluid

Nine wells were originally completed

natural.
Three natural completions were acidized after producing for a few
months and all responded with sizable production increases. An example is shown in Figure 1.
Four wells were acidized and two
reacidized during initial completion,
Initial acid response was good, but
reacidizing did not help.
Two wells near the edge of the producing area declined very rapidly.
DSTs were reported on 5wells and
all flowed gas at rates of 1 to 5
MMCFD.
Logs show the better wells have
higher porosity and thicker sections,
One well was frac treated during
initial completion without prior
testing.

Two were DSTd and flowed gas at

small rates. Logs show poor development, response to acid was small
and one was fraced but did not respond.
The other two wells were not DSTd
and logs show poor development on
one and moderation the other. Acid
treatments were not reported on
either well.

The wells in the study area were completed prior to the strong interest in preventing

 SPE 6379

KALE WEBSTER

sting and acid stimulation were used. The

production data shows the wells drilled in
the better developed porosity and permeabilityportion of the field responded normally
to stimulation and made good wells.

formation damage. Low waterloss mud was not

used to drill the Morrow Sands in most of
these wells, and KCL was not added to thecement. However, a regular non-emulsifying
acid was effective in removing damage from
wells within the productive area. Wells in
the po-eveloped
reservoir areas did not
respond to any type treatment, and the results should not be confused with formation
damage. Re-evaluation of the mud, casing,
tubing, and stimulation programs would substantially reduce drilling and completion cost

The data from the study area could be

used to re-evaluate the muds casing, tubing,
cementing and stimulation to substantially
reduce drilling and completion cost.
REFERENCES

1.

Stewart-Gordon, T. J.: High Oil Prices,

Technology Support Austin Chalk Boom,
World Oil (October 1976) 123-127.

2*

Long, Mike:

Austin Chalk Play Spreads

Far To Northeast in Texas, The Oil and
Gas Journal (September 6, 1976) 60-64.

3.

Webster, K.R., Goins, W.C. Jr., and

Berry, S.C,: A Continuous Multistage
Fracing Technique, J. Pet. Tech. (June
1965) 619-625.

4.

Weaver, Christopher R.: HNGOil Companys

Develorxnentand Production Techniques in
SuttonCounty Sand Pays, The 21st Annual
Southwest Petroleum Short Course - 1974.

Conclusions
The present practices used to dr11 and
complete the Morrow Sand are strongly influenced by.the operators concern about the
prevention of formation damage; Very 1ow water loss mud is used to drill the pay section.
Larger casing and tubing is used in~i ny wells
to facilitate the useof bigger and better
penetrating perforation guns. Several additives are used in the acid stimulation treatments to prevent or remove damage. All of
these increase the well cost.
Data from the study area does not substantiate the need for all of these measures
to prevent formation damage, Most of the
study area wells were drilled prior to the
big concernover formation damage, and conventional drilling fluid, cementing, perfor-

99

Another vision, Efficient O eratfons Make

300 MCFD Wells Profitable, Eorldoil (August
1974) 45-470

12

-A._L

15

MONTHS

Fig. 1 - Average daily rate vs. months.

.,.
?,

,MAvER-

.ICK

zAVALA

FRIO

MEXICO
._.__z...Al;__-_.Fig. 2 - Map I; South Texas Austin Chalk Area.

~--~

Fig. 3 - Map II; South CarlsbadArea.