Course Description

This course will acquaint the participants with recent learnings in regard to well completions, fracturing, production and water management in shale gas reservoirs. Field data and interpretations will be emphasized in an interactive format. Attendees will receive an overview of shale gas technologies, including muti-stage fracturing in horizontal wells, a summary of field data from different shale gas plays, engineering interpretations of field data, and skills for engineering analysis and field deployment of well completions.

Course Contents

Candidate selection criteria and examples of commercial production

• Recent successful shale gas plays
• Interplay comparison, and implications
• What determines EUR
• Well-by-well variations are huge: what that means, and how to deal with it

Why natural fractures are important

• Permeability
• Network or complex stimulation aimed at improving Stimulated Reservoir Volume and recovery

Completion Design

• Well orientation and trajectory
• Completion methods
• Frac stage and perforating cluster selection and impact of variables

Well stimulations: how to optimize

• Role of in-situ stress and geomechanics
• Diagnostics
• Different horizontal completions
• Best horizontal geometries: length, orientation, updip/downdip, simultaneous stimulation
• Diversion of stimulation fluid, and heterogeneity along well length
• Design of proppant schedule: sized to fit natural/induced fractures; concentrated to boost gas rate
• Frac fluid and proppant selection – how hybrid fracs work

Predicting production

• How to gauge production success: different indexes
• Sensitivity studies
• Permeability loss or gain with depletion: compaction of fractures, and matrix shrinkage

Fluid recovery and recycling

• Flowback rates
• Recovery techniques
• Lift
• Water Recycling

Who should Attend

Well completion and production engineers, and managers and geologists, working in the area of
shale gas. 

About the Instructor

George E. King is a Registered Professional Engineer with 39 years of oilfield experience. His technical background includes energized fracturing, acidizing, asphaltenes, perforating cleanup, complex formations (North Sea chalk, San Juan coal, heavy/viscous oil, tight gas, Deep Water, and unconventional resources (Tier 1, 2 & 3 Barnett shale completions), sand control, low pressure gas wells and applications work on coiled tubing, perforating, formation damage and workovers.  He is technical accomplishments include 60 technical papers, a book on completions and workovers, 1985 SPE Distinguished Lecturer, and 1999 SPE Short Course Lecturer. Industry positions include Technical Chair of 1992 SPE Annual Meeting, API subcommittee chair on perforating, Adjunct Professor at the University of Tulsa in 1988 to 1998 (teaching well completions and fracturing), and numerous SPE committees. Awards include the Amoco Vice President’s Award for technology in 1997, API service award in 1994, and the 2004 SPE Production Operations Award.  George worked with Amoco production from 1971 to 1999 and BP-Amoco from 1999 to 2008, retiring after 37 years, continuing to work in stimulation and production technologies. He is now with Apache, working on technology, shale stimulations, production chemistry and workover operations. He holds a BS in Chemistry from Oklahoma State, a BS in Chemical Engineering. and an MS in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Tulsa.

Registration

The registration deadline is January 11, 2011.  (Sorry, SOLD OUT) The registration fee is $850 for members and $1,050 for nonmembers and is fully refundable until that time.  For more details, contact Darien O’Brien, P.E. at dgobrien@mines.edu or (303) 934-5979.  Make your check payable to SPE Denver Section and mail to: Darien O’Brien, 1632 South Lamar Street, Lakewood, Colorado 80232-7038.  Please include the course name, your FULL name (as you would like it to appear on the course completion certificate), SPE member number (if applicable), Title, Company, e-mail address, postal address, phone and fax number.  You may also register and pay on-line at http://denver.spe.org/.

Forum Meeting Room, Wells Fargo Bank Lobby
1740 Broadway
Off the Lobby by the ATM Machines
Denver, CO 80290

Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 8:00 AM - Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 5:00 PM (MT)

Society of Petroleum Engineers Denver Section

Questions about On-Line Invoice Payment?  Contact:

Erin McEvers, Treasurer
Erin.McEvers@gmail.com

or

Tom Cryan, Webmaster
303-202-9068
tomcryan@comcast.net