Design diversity for efficiency improvement and uncertainty management in multiple wells stimulation

The history of oil and gas well stimulation through hydraulic fracturing is characterized by a pursuit of optimal designs tailored to reservoir properties. However, as with many engineering systems, the impact of variability and uncertainty (in this case of reservoir properties) is not accounted in these deterministic approaches. We propose an expansion of the principle of design diversity wherein the focus becomes developing optimal portfolio combinations of multiple designs rather than repeated application of a single design. This approach can sub-stantially increase return and decrease risk when designing systems where outcome desirability is definable as a smoothly-varying return and where risk is related to the variance of outcomes tied to uncertain spatio-temporal variability of the design environment. For the case of oil/gas wells, diversified designs of portfolios can improve 60% more stimulation efficiency and halve the corresponding risk. Hydraulic fracturing optimization is therefore fundamentally dependent upon uncertainty, and a change of approach toward the pursuit of design diversity can have a profound impact on efficiency and risk, and in turn cost and environmental impacts, in oil and gas development.

Automated summary

The history of oil and gas well stimulation through hydraulic fracturing has shown a pursuit of optimal designs tailored to reservoir properties. By expanding the principle of design diversity to develop optimal portfolio combinations of multiple designs, it can substantially increase return and decrease risk, improving stimulation efficiency for oil/gas wells. This approach is fundamentally dependent upon uncertainty in hydraulic fracturing optimization, and can have a profound impact on efficiency and risk, as well as cost and environmental impacts, in oil and gas development.