SPE-171015-MS

Eco-Friendly Biodegradable Materials For Zonal Isolation Of Multiple

Perforation Clusters During Refracturing Of a Horizontal Well: Case History
From Marcellus Shale Hydraulic Fracturing
David Arnold, Anastasios Boulis, and Francisco Fragachan, Weatherford International

Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Eastern Regional Meeting held in Charleston, WV, USA, 2123 October 2014.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
For some time now the industry has been concentrating on horizontal wells in shale formations which
require multi-stage fracturing operations to tap their production potential. Several different techniques
have been developed for performing these operations each with their own advantages and drawbacks;
however, when it comes to performing re-fracs the isolation of zones to be treated presents some major
problems in logistics and operating costs no matter the initial fracturing operation method used.
A key characteristic in unconventional reservoirs development is that they need massive hydraulic
fracturing to create high permeability conduits to connect the reservoir to the wellbore and assure
appropriate flow rates to make the development economical. In general, production performance for this
type of reservoirs show an early high inflow followed by a steep decline. Refracture jobs have been a
common practice to mitigate the flow rate decline and revitalize wells productivity. In the cases where
infill refracturing is used, the isolation of the existing perforations is imperative, to mitigate the loss of
fluids during the refracturing process.
One approach involves the use of mechanical diverters, such as perforation balls, rock salts etc., which
may be useful for one stage; however, cessation of pumping operations results in them falling out of the
perforations or dissolving. In this paper, a new approach is presented using degradable materials. These
materials can be tailored to plug perforations on a temporary basis but degrade over time, depending on
formation temperature, to re-open them. This method has applications in initial fracturing operations as
an alternative to the often used plug and perf. method and can be extremely advantageous in refracturing
operations in plugging off the existing, productive perforations and exposing the unproductive ones for
treatment. It also provides similar advantages in wells with existing perforations, where additional
perforations are added and need to be treated.
Moreover, a case study is used to show the application of these degradable materials in a refracturing
job in a shale gas well in the Marcellus Shale. Based on the results, the sealing agents successfully bridged
off the existing perforations, diverting the refracturing fluid to the new clusters. In this paper the author
will discuss the evolution of fracturing methods and describe the development of degradable materials
which can degrade over time for a range of bottom hole temperatures. He will continue to present a case

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study of its use in a refracturing treatment in a well with 26 sets of existing perforations and 24 sets of
recently perforated clusters, with the intent to seal the older clusters and begin accessing the new clusters.

Introduction
In the past decade the most significant technological breakthrough in the Oil & Gas industry has been the
shift towards horizontal drilling. This has led to single wellbores access more viable rock downhole, a
smaller footprint on surface, allowing more wells for increased drainage and more efficient workflow
through sliding-sleeve systems and plug and perf zipper fracturing operations. This has also shifted
focus from traditional reservoir rock or conventional wells to the tighter source rock with lower
permeability commonly referred to as unconventional wells, and most often to referred to as shale plays.
With this focus trending towards operational efficiency and time savings, there is less emphasis on a
stage by stage design approach, often leaving unstimulated reservoir that has the potential to produce more
hydrocarbons. Many shales exhibit steep productivity declines within a short amount of time (some shales
show a 60-80% decline within a year, Jayakumar et al. 2010) due to proppant crushing, embedment, low
reservoir permeability, ineffective initial fracturing jobs, etc. This leads to the potential of many
re-fracturing candidates in the major shale basins.
That leads to several important questions: which wells should be refractured? What type of treatment
and by which operational method? This paper will focus on proper candidate selection, current completion
methods and a case history relating to the Marcellus Shale.
There are several operational approaches to re-fracturing well, some of which require sealing-off
existing zones and losing the previous fracturing treatment production, while others require installing
sophisticated downhole tools. The following section presents some of these tools:
Sliding Sleeve Systems
These are completion tool systems that can be custom tailored to allow access ports to open directly at the
reservoir area of interest. A sequence of varying sized, or more recently same sized balls can be dropped
at designated time to open the ports on the sleeve, allowing the fracturing treatment to have access to the
formation. These systems allow for increased efficiency and zonal accuracy, deployment of a sliding
sleeve system on an existing well could be costly and time consuming. Also, there are rate and friction
pressure considerations.
CT Tools
Advanced tools can be deployed on coiled tubing that can be used to isolate zones of interest in the
wellbore for a more precise treatment. This approach can provide the over the zone of interest accuracy
much like the sliding sleeves systems but also has similar drawbacks. Coiled tubing has a smaller inner
diameter than traditional casing used during the fracturing treatment, which allows for less rate and
proppant concentrations. Additionally, there are costs associated with using coiled tubing and there may
be availability issues and wellsite size limitations.
Perforation Squeeze
Sealing the existing perforations with cement (perf squeeze) can be an alternative to using a downhole
completion system or coiled tubing. A cement slurry is pumped into the perforations and the existing
fractures in order to seal and allow for new perforations to be shot during refracturing operations. The
treatment would start at the toe or end of the casing, and work stage by stage up the well; similar to how
the initial fracturing operations were conducted. The application of this method will eliminate all existing
perforations and might potentially damage the original producing fractures.
Mechanical & Chemical Diverters
A more simplistic approach, considered a tried and true method, of sealing perforations and zones are
the mechanical diverters. Traditionally this is accomplished by pumping ball sealers or degradable balls
in the fracturing fluid to seat on the perforations and diverting fluid away from the sealed perforations.

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Operationally the perforation ball method is very easily deployed; needing only a ball gun on the surface
and they can be pumped at designated times during the treatment. The main drawback is due to the
multi-zonal nature of wells. Constant pressure to maintain the balls seated on the perfs is needed, and if
at any point the treatment needs to be shut-down (i.e. equipment maintenance), these balls will unseat.
French et. al. (2013) presented the results of refracturing treatments that utilized perf balls and biodegradable ball sealers as a means of temporary perf cluster isolation. While operationally successful there
were challenges and concerns related to their use; In a horizontal well, achieving efficient seating action
can be especially challenging, given that the ball sealers may settle to the bottom of the casing during the
pumping of the treatment, this is especially true when the stimulation treatment suffers any form of
interruption or drop in the velocity below critical flow . . .Furthermore, if the hydraulic fracturing
operation is temporarily halted (for any reason) due to operational or mechanical issues, then much of the
previous ball diversion effect that was achieved could be subsequently lost. There are other types of
mechanical diversion that are commonly used, such as rock salt, benzoic acid flakes and other solid
substance that will actually enter into the perforations and near wellbore fractures, allowing a bridging
effect. The drawback of these materials is they are short-lived and will degrade, quite possibly before all
the fracturing treatments have been completed.
Ideally, a method of achieving zonal isolation and diversion by incorporating the simplistic nature of
mechanical diverters, that will enter into the perforations and will allow for shut-downs when necessary,
with the life-span that can last the time frame needed to complete the entire well should be applied.

Degradable Diverters
Revisiting the concept of mechanical diverters has led in recent times to consideration of using degradable
materials to plug off perforations, providing zonal isolation for a temporary basis. The use of such
materials is commonplace in the medical profession (degradable sutures which dissolve over time) and in
the food industry where biodegradable material is being used for food packaging that will degrade over
time in landfills and address some of todays ecological concerns. However, this type of material degrades
at temperatures lower than the temperatures associated with downhole conditions in oil and gas reservoirs.
In order to set standards for the development of a biodegradable material, a set of criteria was developed
for its use at elevated temperatures (Erbstoesser et. al.):

The need to be robust enough to survive the placement process associated with fracturing
operations.
Its shelf life should be such as to enable use in worldwide operations, to survive long term storage
in all climates and be unaffected by compaction.
It should require no secondary treatment to enable degradation, i.e. self-starting.
Particle size should be such that it is compatible with pumping equipment and can pass through
the fluid end of a pump.
It should be cost effective compared to existing methods.
It should be capable of temporary blockage in unknown geometries and borehole configurations.

Biocompatible and biodegradable polymers have recently attracted a lot of attention from advocates of
sustainable development of green chemistry. These materials are made from renewable sources, have
a small carbon footprint and are environmentally friendly with properties that can compete with
non-biodegradable plastics. These materials are attractive because they are naturally occurring compounds
and chemists have been working hard of late to tailor their properties to make it practical for a wide variety
of applications. After experimental testing, these polymers have been developed that can degrade in a
broad temperature range, over an expansive time range and meet all the desired field application criteria.
Using a particle diverter system and temperature ranges to be able to address the widest possible range
of downhole conditions.

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The combination of these two polymer materials which are degradable and environmentally acceptable
can be tailored for use in two temperature ranges, the LT version is for temperatures in the range 130 180F (54 - 82C) and the standard version for temperatures in the range 180-300F (82 - 149C). When
mixed with a viscous water-based carrying fluid, suitably gelled to allow them to remain in suspension,
they can be pumped into the well and bridge off the existing perforations. It can be used in several
applications:

During the flush following the fracturing operation to seal off & provide zonal isolation to the
interval just treated a plug and perf type operation.
In vertical and/or deviated wells treated through tubing where use of bridge plugs is not possible.
Sealing off existing perforations to prepare for refract rather than squeeze cementing them.
For zonal isolation in horizontal wells before treatment to seal off existing perforation cluster this
is particularly applicable to refract candidates.
This material combination will effectively block existing perforations, frac channels and sliding sleeve
ports with typical 300 1,000 psi pressure increase and when in place is stable under large pressure
increases upwards of 4,000 psi.

Case Study
A unique case is presented for the use of degradable diverter technology. A horizontal shale gas well that
had been previously fractured was chosen to be re-stimulated and all the existing perforation clusters were
screened-off with high concentrations of sand. Afterwards, additional perforation clusters were shot in
previously bypassed formation. These perforations were interspersed between the older clusters. After
further consideration the operator decided to seek out more permanent sealing and isolation of the older
clusters that had already be stimulated in order to divert the new fracturing treatments solely towards the
newly perforated clusters. This would be an interesting challenge and a way to showcase the ability of
in-situ mechanical diverters to seal existing clusters while there were already new perforation clusters
downhole.
This candidate re-fracturing well is located in the southwestern Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. The
initial fracturing treatments were conducted using traditional plug and perf type completion, since the
re-fracturing treatment was to be conducted through the existing production casing, and there were no
down-hole tools deployed. The treatment was designed around typical Marcellus treatments for desired
rate, water volumes and sand mesh sizes and concentrations for that area.
The re-stimulation candidate well was drilled to a True Vertical Depth (TVD) approximately 6,500=
deep and had a Measured Depth (MD) approximately 9,400= in length, and 5-1/2= 20lbs/ft. P-110 casing
string was cemented in place. The initial treatment had 26 clusters of 12 perforations each, for a total of
312 perforations, the new sets of perforations were in 24 clusters with 8 perforations per cluster for a total
of 192 virgin perforations.
Certain equipment considerations need to be taken into account when pumping these diverters. The
large nature of some of the particles can remain in the valves & seats of the frac pump fluid ends. To avoid
these complications and maintain the material in a concentrated batch, the material is deployed on
secondary equipment isolated from the main frac fleet.
Before the first treatment stage could be placed, the diverter needed to be run until there was confidence
that all, or the majority of the existing perforation clusters had been properly diverted. It was also known
that the typical breakdown pressure of new perforations for this area ranged from 6,500 psi to 7,000 psi
and this would be important for determining amount of the sealing material. The process involved the mix
of a batch of the diverter, which was pumped at a rate of 25 bpm and flushed until the diverter would reach
a perforation cluster, indicated by an increase in treating pressure. This was repeated for a total of six

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Figure 1Deployment of the degradable diverter in six (6) separate batches - Pressure was gradually increased from 4,800 psi to above 6,500 psi,
which is the typical breakdown pressure for new perforations in this region.

Figure 2Deployment of the diverter in six batches, followed by the first fracturing treatment

times, and on that sixth deployment a sharp pressure increase occurred with several breakages, at which
point the first fracture stage began (Figure 1 and Figure 2).
The treatment stages were treated in typical fashion: perform a low rate breakdown, acid spearhead,
PAD stage, typical proppant concentrations and amounts for that region and followed by a flush.

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Figure 3Prior to treating the fourth stage, the diverter batch had a 3,000 psi pressure spike when entering the perforation clusters

The initial treatment of the well called for eight stages of equal design to be performed, and the final
result was the successful placement of seven and half of the eight total stages, finishing in a screen-out.
The last few stages had treated at a higher pressure than initial stages and that was likely due to fewer
perforations clusters taking good fluid after so many diversion runs. The early diversion design called for
high concentrations of diverter material per perforation, and after a few very high diversion pressure
responses, that amount was reduced by 75%. The fourth stage alone saw a sharp 3,000 psi increase (Figure
3) when the diverter sealed perforation clusters, the material remained intact after that pressure spike, and
it was at that point it was decided to reduce the concentration of the diverter.

Conclusions
There are many new shale plays coming to the forefront in the coming years, but the re-fracturing of
existing wells will also play an important role for restoring declined production.
An array of downhole tools (sliding sleeves, coiled tubing etc.) is available to perform this type of
treatment. However, some of these methods while effective can be costly, time consuming and may even
limit the treatment design due to rate restrictions and increased friction pressure.
In the case where infill refracturing is decided, and the existing perforations have to sealed, a series of
alternative methods have developed. Mechanical diverters are commonly used due to their operational
simplicity and cost effectiveness. However, this type of diverter exhibits some operational challenges
which have to do with the maintenance of the pressure on the materials to constantly divert the fluid. Other
methods, such as cement squeeze have been applied. This method requires less intervention; however, the
existing perforations are permanently sealed and can potentially damage the zones that are still contributing to the flow.
A new temporary sealing agent, which involves chemical and mechanical diverters is introduced in this
paper. These diverting agents will enter the perforations and bridge-off, giving that long seal that allows
for the multiple shut-downs that occur during a refracturing treatment. This method offers a viable

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alternative to using completion tools as well as traditional mechanical diverting agents. Another advantage
of using this system is there would be no intervention needed post-treatment (mill plugs, retrieve sliding
sleeves etc.). These materials degrade over a period of depending on the downhole temperature and the
major or all of the material would return as a liquid, in some instances there may still be some semi-solid
materials that can be collected in a sand separator. The results of the application of these diverters in a
shale gas well in the Marcellus Shale were presented. Based on these, the diverting agents successfully
sealed the existing perforations (pressure increase until it reaches the breakdown pressure of the rock) and
diverted the fracture fluid to the new clusters.
In general, this type of diverters can replace several current fracturing or refracturing methods since
they are more time and cost effective. Nonetheless, careful planning is needed in the concentration of
diverter in each stage, the surface equipment | layout, and the criteria for what determines a successful
pressure increase and breakage for each zone.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Weatherford for permission to publish this paper and their encouragement to
do so.

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Conference, The Woodlands, TX 4-6 February 2014.
Allison, D., Curry, S., Todd, B., CSUG/SPE, Halliburton, Restimulation of Wells Using Biodegradable Particulates as Temporary Diverting Agents, SPE 149221 prepared for presentation at the Canadian
Unconventional Resources Conference on 15-17 November in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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