By Craig Cipolla, Garrett Fowler, and Mark McClure
HOUSTON– Hess Corp. applied advanced numerical modeling and simulation to better understand complex relationships between a horizontal parent and two vertical child wells completed in the Middle Bakken formation. The results not only help make sense of diverse parent/child well observations, but also shed new light on effective frac length, the impact of frac hits on parent well production, proppant distribution and “trapping,” and more.
The high-quality dataset used in the simulations includes microseismic depletion delineation (MDD) data in the parent well, three diagnostic fracture injection tests (DFITs) in the two child wells, frac hits and an observed production uplift in the parent (H1). The second vertical child well (V2) was used for microseismic and deformation (downhole tilt) measurements, while the first vertical well (V1) was used for pressure measurements and hydraulic fracture characterization.
