Massive hydraulic fracturing is a costly operation, particularly offshore where logistic constraints and high rig rates add significant financial risk. For the Lower Tertiary Gulf of Mexico, limited production from analogous fields and very high appraisal-drilling costs result in huge uncertainty for key reservoir parameters and a lack of consensus on best practices for fracture design. This paper provides new approaches to fracture design for thick, vertically anisotropic reservoirs, when considerable uncertainty in reservoir parameters amplifies the financial risks associated with water depth and remoteness.
Risk Analysis
Offshore applications are subject to significant risk because of hostile operating environments and the extreme costs involved. Although multistage hydraulic fracturing for productivity is common onshore, with financial risks well understood, the same cannot be said for offshore.
Compared with the entire cost of drilling and completing an offshore well, the proppant cost is nearly insignificant.
