In
the evolving landscape of hydraulic fracturing, a transformative synergy of
electrification, automation and real-time optimization has emerged. The commingling
of these technologies is paving the way for unprecedented efficiency and performance
gains, while also reducing costs and NPT.
Halliburton
has launched a series of novel technologies specifically designed to upgrade
hydraulic fracturing operations. The company’s ZEUS electric fracturing system lowers
emissions, slashes fuel costs and amplifies efficiency to drive down the total
cost of ownership for operators. The Octiv intelligent fracturing platform has
made the digital frac site a reality by enabling automation across our entire
fracturing business—driving increased reliability and consistency in operations.
In
the subsurface, our SmartFleet fracture monitoring system is changing the way
our customers see and evaluate fracture performance, through real-time,
actionable insights that optimize fracture designs and recovery. Electrification,
automation, and real-time optimization—together these services usher in a new
era in hydraulic fracturing that maximizes efficiency and performance while
lowering the total cost of ownership for operators.
Making
the switch to electric fracturing. A combination of
factors has driven the increase in adoption of electric fracturing. First, the industry
has committed to lower emissions through cleaner, more efficient frac
operations. By eliminating diesel, operators achieve significant cost savings. Finally,
the industry’s constant focus on efficiency further fuels demand for electric
fracturing.
From
the frac spread to the wireline unit, the ZEUS electric fracturing system
delivers differentiated value on each of these drivers. It offers an
integrated, all-electric frac site that lowers emissions, reduces fuel costs,
and maximizes efficiency gains for our customers. In terms of lower emissions, the
system offers flexibility and compatibility across multiple sources, including reciprocating
engines, micro grids, and grid power. Each of these power
solutions results in lower emissions, compared to diesel and dual-fuel
operations.
When
powered by the grid, the ZEUS system can reduce overall emissions up to an
estimated 45%, compared to Tier 2 diesel engines.1 When grid power is
unavailable, reciprocating engines provide operators with mobile power
generation, proven to deliver reliability, consume less fuel, and create fewer emissions,
compared to other mobile power sources. While using reciprocation engines, the system
reduces overall emissions by up to an estimated 30%, compared to Tier 2 diesel
engines. The power density provided by reciprocating engines also allows
operators to scale power supply to meet their specific job design, eliminating
the need to pay for unused, stranded power.
In
addition to lower emissions, electric fracturing significantly reduces fuel
costs. During a simul-frac operation, the system can displace more than 900,000
gal of diesel per month or 11 million gal annually.2
Halliburton’s
ZEUS system offers operators a differentiated value proposition, which reduces
dollars spent per completed lateral foot. With the reliability and efficiency
of its electric power train, it sets a new standard in managing increased service
intensity. Every ZEUS pumping unit can achieve up to 5,000 HHP consistently,
allowing operators to pump higher rates, using half the equipment necessary.
The
electric power train provides faster rate response and more precise control. An
electric system also eliminates non-productive time associated with diesel
engines, transmissions and hydraulics. The company engineered the ZEUS system
for high-service-intensity frac operations, with the ability to pump higher volumes,
rates and pressures, right out of the box. The systems’ proven track record
includes pumping more than 500 hrs in the first 30 days of operations for
multiple operators across North America.
Halliburton’s
success results not only from the ZEUS system, but also from the performance of
its field crews and electrical teams, including the engineers that maintain the
portfolio of leading technical solutions; the experts that evaluate unique
power generation challenges; and the certified power distribution technicians at
each electric fracturing job site. The result is an electric fracturing system
that has delivered an average of 30% faster transition times and 11% more
HHP hours pumped per month—this means more pumping hours, more lateral feet
completed, and more cost savings for operators.
Frac
automation: The new norm. Today’s frac site is more complex than
just a few years ago. Crews need to monitor thousands of variables, manage
thousands of control setpoints across equipment, and coordinate the exchange of
information between systems, crews and operators—all to pump a single frac
stage. These complex operations need intelligent systems that streamline and
simplify operations, making them more efficient, reliable and consistent. This
is what we have achieved through our Octiv intelligent fracturing platform.
Our
entire U.S. land frac fleet has been upgraded with the Octiv platform. It has
transformed our business to operate with automatically controlled and digitally
integrated machines that optimize how we run our operations. The platform is
more than simple task automation. It is built on three fundamental pillars: 1) spread
automation; 2) digital operations; and 3) remote connectivity, Fig. 1. At
its core is spread automation, which has transformed the way we run our frac
fleet. Gone are the days of controlling frac pumps and blending equipment
individually. With the platform, we conduct an entire frac spread as a single,
fully automated system that delivers greater equipment reliability and
operational efficiency.
By
integrating with thousands of sensors across a spread, the Octiv platform helps
ensure operations are executed to plan while running equipment at optimal
levels for increased reliability and extended equipment life. Every day, across
every well site, we are automating thousands of commands to control our
equipment. This has reduced 95% of personnel touchpoints that can result in human
error or variability during fracture execution. In doing so, the platform consistently
optimizes how our equipment is run.
For
example, it has reduced pump cavitation by up to 26%, resulting in longer
pumping intervals between maintenance. We have also reduced infant failures in
our equipment by eliminating the root cause of those failures—making our
equipment more reliable. Using the platform, we can predict failures before
they occur, thus extending the life of major components, including fluid ends,
engines and transmissions.
The
Octiv platform does more than just spread automation. Through digital
operations, it connects people, processes and equipment, simplifying how we
work every day. By streamlining workflows to control the spread, process data,
and manage inventory, the platform maximizes our efficiency and performance at
the wellsite.
However,
the platform isn’t just changing how we operate. It helps our customers optimize
their operations as well. Through the Octiv Connect remote operations portal,
Halliburton introduces a new level of transparency that connects the frac site to
the cloud, allowing our customers to interact with operations easier and faster
than ever before. It provides instant visibility into job progress and
analytics, while enabling collaboration on each design change, every stage,
every well, across every asset.
In
our industry, we often speak about automation, digital operations, and remote
connectivity as separate, individual capabilities. Through the Octiv platform,
we have integrated these capabilities into a single platform that optimizes how
we run our business, how we execute our frac operations, and how operators
control their assets. But this type of intelligent control doesn’t stop at the
surface. It goes deeper.
Fracture
monitoring, simplified. In unconventional shale, operators
want to maximize return on capital, improve cash flow, and meet well
performance expectations. However, only 2% of completion stages in North
America are monitored. This results in high uncertainty and variability around completion
outcomes versus its design and leads to variability in the performance of the
asset.
The historical approach to answering these challenges consists of indirect subsurface measurements that lead to decisions based on uncertainty, and drawn-out processes across numerous wells to evaluate and validate performance effectively. Although permanent distributed fiber optic sensing is one of the most trusted fracture monitoring technologies for evaluating fracture performance and well interactions, the complexity during execution limits its usefulness across large-scale programs with hundreds of wells. The SmartFleet system combines a variety of downhole sensors, measurements and visualization into a single fracture monitoring system that lets you observe fracture performance in real time across the entire program.
SmartFleet
also simultaneously provides measurements of fluid distribution along the
treatment wellbore and interactions of the generated fractures with offset
wells. With live visualization of fracture behavior, operators can measure
interstage communication, effective stage distribution, fracture azimuth,
growth rate and inter-bench communication. Ultimately, understanding fracture behavior
enables the operator to ensure performance and control the completion’s
interaction with the reservoir.
SmartFleet
incorporates minimally intrusive diagnostics, such as the ExpressFiber disposable
fiber service, enabling routine fracture monitoring. It also keeps you connected
on the go with a mobile app that provides real-time access to fracture
performance anytime, anywhere, Fig. 2. The fracture monitoring service
is an operator's link to the subsurface. It allows them to take fracture
monitoring to scale by giving them access to the actionable insight they want,
minus the operational complexity.
With
the SmartFleet system, we have simplified how to acquire, process, and
streamline data, enabling operators to gain insights on every pad in real-time,
without interfering with the existing operation. Using cloud processing, digital
deliverability, remote connectivity, and data automation, operators can quickly
and easily understand fracture performance and take control of their fracture outcomes.
The systems’ ease of use and 10 times lower total cost of ownership, compared
to permanent fiber, is why we continue to see repeat business from the majority
of our system users.
Using
SmartFleet to diagnose fracture geometry during simul-frac operations. An
operator recently used the SmartFleet fracture monitoring system to diagnose
fracture geometry during simul-frac operations. Simul-frac is a growing effort
to improve operational efficiency but implies execution changes to both the
surface and subsurface. In certain areas, it can be challenging to understand
these changes given the numerous bedding planes, barriers, and other
heterogeneities. By offering visibility of the generated fractures in real time
on a pad level, the system can solve this challenge.
The
SmartFleet system measured far-field fracture-induced strain and microseismic
activity. These real-time insights diagnosed several completion techniques to
differentiate how changes in completion design affected fracture geometry. The
tests included changes in perforation friction, cluster count, slurry volume,
and simul-frac operations.
During
the 23-day pad, continuous fiber measurements provided live diagnostic results.
The operator validated which simul-frac treatments communicated with
observation wells and determined how the total treatment fluid volume
influenced fracture growth and communication to offset wells.
These
real-time insights can help drive design improvements, such as adjusting stage
length while maintaining uniformity, optimizing perf designs, improving time to
rate and breakdown, adjusting proppant schedules to reduce pump time, and
identifying impacts of well sequencing.
Using
SmartFleet to understand parent-child relationships. Many E&P companies seek
avenues to maximize recovery from both parent and child wells utilizing various
completion and asset development strategies. In the past, operators have relied
on surface pressure measurements to characterize fracture behavior. These point
sensors provide a limited understanding of the volume to the first response. On
the other hand, distributed fiber optic strain measurements can pinpoint the
overall extent of fracture coverage from offset fracs to distinguish interaction
pathways and multiple fracture responses from individual treatments. In addition,
processed fiber optic data simultaneously generate a microseismic map in
three-dimensional space, providing growth behavior of the far-field fracture
network.
On a recent operation, the SmartFleet system monitored fracture behavior across three
adjacent well pads and eight simultaneous disposable fibers. This was the
largest cross-well project for the system to date and resulted in no
operational interference or disruptions to efficiency.
The monitor wells and
offset treatment wells were landed across five different benches of varying
depths. Each of the treatment wells was treated as a simul-frac zipper, with
individual well pairs treated concurrent to one another. Offset microseismic
activity was gathered and processed from four of the eight monitoring wells,
alongside offset strain activity from all eight fiber-optic monitoring wells.
The project’s key objective was to understand the impact
of offset depletion and to optimize fluid loading to mitigate any negative
production impact from child wells. To understand fracture containment, the
team mapped the strain response from the various benches within the high and
low lateral elevations. Then, they evaluated the strain coverage across each
monitor well to understand fracture growth rate and far-field complexity. The
system detected and mapped over 600 fracture interactions and 20,000
microseismic events throughout the project. These results accelerated the
learning curve, allowing the operator to adjust their assumptions while optimizing
data-driven decisions on future developments.
Charting
a new benchmark in performance. In this new era
of hydraulic fracturing, the convergence of technology, service quality and
diagnostics is propelling the industry towards unparalleled efficiency and also
establishes a new benchmark for performance. Through the adoption of electric
fracturing, Halliburton moves beyond conventional boundaries to lower
emissions, reduce fuel costs and enhance operational efficiency.
Complimenting
this with intelligent automation, Halliburton redefines the approach and
execution of fracture operations by making them more reliable and consistent.
By further simplifying the way we evaluate and understand the subsurface, we
can empower more operators with real-time insights that contribute to increased
recovery. As the industry navigates this transformative landscape, the
combination of these elements becomes the cornerstone, paving the way for an
energy future defined by sustainability, reliability and performance. WO
REFERENCES
Lead Photo: The ZEUS electric fracturing system offers an all-electric frac site that lowers emissions, reduces fuel costs, and maximizes efficiency gains for operators.
WILLIAM RUHLE is the strategic business manager for Stimulation Equipment at Halliburton, working in the Production Enhancement product service line. He has been in the industry for 15 years, with experience across operations, business development, product management and business strategy. Mr. Ruhle has worked in various locations around the globe.
KURT
HARPOLD is
the
strategic business manager for Stimulation Equipment at Halliburton, working in
the Production Enhancement
product service line. He
oversees technology development, completion process refinement and
commercialization efforts. Mr. Harpold joined Halliburton in 2005 and has held
positions in business development and operations management in various
geographies.