Completion optimization has long been focused on two primary techniques. The first looks at historical well performance or field trials to extract lessons for future wells, while the second deploys advanced measurement techniques to collect detailed data on specific wells. These techniques have a long history of leading to more reliable models and accelerating design improvements.

But even with increasingly sophisticated data analysis tools, there is a significant lag between collecting data and adjusting completion designs to improve performance. To shrink the gap between information and action, completion teams have spent decades experimenting with ways to turn accessible data into downhole insights they can act on in real time or at least between stages.

Today, the possibilities for real-time optimization are expanding. Thanks to ongoing work by operators, service companies and academic institutions, new technologies are bringing down the cost of generating useful measurements in real time. By applying these measurements to calibrate increasingly efficient fracture and completion models, completion teams are getting faster feedback on completion effectiveness and the resulting fracture geometries. This feedback has the potential to significantly improve proppant distribution and well performance if the industry can leverage it efficiently.

Click here to read the rest of the article in AOGR.