AvantGuard services are based on the application of the secure operating envelope, which is a combination of operational parameters that preserve the connection between hydraulic fractures and the wellbore (illustration: Schlumberger)

Schlumberger introduced at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference AvantGuard* advanced flowback services. These services protect the connection of the hydraulic fracture to the wellbore to optimise productivity in conventional and unconventional wells.

AvantGuard services comprise flowback design and proactive fracture protection that complement fracturing operations. Damage to the well and the formation is actively prevented by tailoring a predictive flowback design strategy with a defined secure operating envelope. Application of the flowback design during the transition to production protects and stabilises hydraulic fractures to efficiently enable all the clusters in each zone to produce without productivity impairment.

“Optimising the poststimulation flowback of hydraulically fractured wells is a significant challenge for our industry,” says Wallace Pescarini, president, Testing Services, Schlumberger. “Protecting the investment made in a complex multistage stimulation operation is a must in today’s cost-constrained environment, and AvantGuard services provide the integrated flowback solution that delivers productivity and recovery.”

Modelling is conducted in the Flowback Advisor design model built on Mangrove* engineered stimulation design. The AvantGuard model is adapted to the well’s specific geological, geochemical and geomechanical environment. The resulting flow is continuously monitored using Vx* multiphase well testing technology to accurately capture the rapid transient changes of produced fluids and sand content during early flow in the life of the well. This level of control begins during coiled tubing millout as the dynamic fluid and solids rate information is transmitted in real time to the coiled tubing unit to guide managing injection, return rate and pressure and optimise the balance condition.

In more than 50 operations conducted to date in unconventional plays including the Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Permian and Bakken Shales, AvantGuard services guided active control of coiled tubing injection parameters and the wellhead choke has kept wells in the defined secure operating envelope to protect fracture connectivity and productivity.

*Mark of Schlumberger

Tags: Schlumberger