Dimensionless fracture conductivity determines how much of the fracture is useful. It compares the fracture's ability to carry fluid along its length against the formation's ability to deliver fluid into it. When it is high, the fracture behaves as infinitely conductive and productivity is governed by fracture length. When it is low, fluid entering the far end of the fracture cannot reach the wellbore efficiently, and additional length adds nothing. In high permeability rock this favours short wide highly conductive fractures; in low permeability rock it favours long fractures. Designing without regard to this produces treatments optimised for the wrong variable.

Height containment governs whether the treatment does what was intended. A fracture that grows out of the target interval into an overlying or underlying water-bearing zone will produce water for the life of the well, and one that grows into a low pressure depleted zone will lose fluid into it. Containment depends on stress contrast between layers, which is measurable, and on interface properties, which are not. Estimating the stress profile before designing a treatment is the single most useful piece of reservoir engineering input to a fracture design.

Post-fracture flow behaviour is distinctive and diagnostic. A fractured well produces first through the fracture, then linearly from the formation into the fracture faces, then eventually through pseudo-radial flow if the reservoir is large enough. Each regime has a signature in the production and pressure data, and analysing them yields fracture half-length and conductivity independently of what the treatment was designed to create. Comparing designed against achieved fracture properties across a campaign is how fracture design actually improves.

Finally, candidate selection determines campaign success more than design does. A well with low permeability, adequate remaining reserves, good containment and a wellbore capable of taking the treatment will respond. A well already producing at its reservoir-limited potential, or in a zone with poor containment, or with mechanical problems, will not. Screening candidates properly before designing treatments is where the largest return on effort lies.

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Determine in-situ stress magnitude and orientation and construct a stress profile from available data
• Assess fracture height containment from stress contrast and layer properties
• Explain fracture propagation and predict fracture geometry for given rock and treatment conditions
• Evaluate proppant selection and calculate fracture conductivity including embedment and damage effects
• Apply dimensionless fracture conductivity to determine optimal fracture geometry for a given permeability
• Interpret treatment design parameters and their consequences for created fracture properties
• Predict post-fracture well productivity and its improvement over the unstimulated case
• Identify flow regimes in fractured wells and analyse production data to estimate fracture properties
• Interpret fracture diagnostics including pressure analysis, tracers, microseismic and fibre optic data
• Select fracturing and refracturing candidates and evaluate treatment outcomes

The training develops the mechanics and then moves to the reservoir engineering consequences, with calculations worked through for stress profiles, fracture geometry, conductivity, dimensionless conductivity and expected productivity improvement. Post-fracture production data from real wells is analysed to extract fracture half-length and conductivity, and the results compared against the treatment design to demonstrate the difference between designed and achieved. Diagnostic data sets including pressure records, tracer results and fibre optic profiles are interpreted. Campaign results are examined for the candidate selection and design factors behind their outcomes.

Organisations sending participants to this training will:

• Improve fracturing candidate selection and campaign success rates
• Improve the specification of treatments through better reservoir engineering input
• Reduce treatments that grow out of zone and produce water
• Improve post-fracture production forecasting
• Establish a feedback loop between design, achieved geometry and production outcome
• Strengthen technical review of service company treatment designs and evaluations

Participants will:

• Understand what governs the fracture a treatment creates
• Provide reservoir engineering input that improves treatment design
• Analyse post-fracture production to determine what was actually achieved
• Forecast fractured well performance with a sound basis
• Select candidates that will respond to stimulation
• Work effectively with completion and stimulation specialists

• Reservoir engineers working with hydraulically fractured wells
• Production engineers evaluating and forecasting stimulated well performance
• Completion engineers seeking stronger reservoir engineering grounding
• Development engineers planning stimulation campaigns
• Reserves and evaluation engineers assessing fractured well reserves
• Geoscientists supporting stimulation and geomechanics work
• Technical staff reviewing service company treatment proposals

Upon successful completion of this training course, delegates will be awarded an official Certificate of Completion issued by the Petroleum Engineers Association (PEA), an ISO 9001:2015 certified training organization. The certificate carries 10 Credits and formally records the total learning hours completed.

Each certificate is signed by the Course Facilitator and the CEO of the Petroleum Engineers Association, and serves as verifiable proof of professional training that delegates can present to employers and professional bodies worldwide.