Halliburton Introduces New Perforation Flow Laboratory

Halliburton Energy Services recently commercialized a new element of its PerfPro process - its Perforation Flow Laboratory, which can simulate a wide range of well conditions and flow measurement options to accommodate low permeability hard rock and high permeability unconsolidated sand samples. Designed to address the deficiencies in validation data, the laboratory provides detailed instrumentation and controlled-laboratory conditions that can allow insight into physical phenomena occurring in the reservoir during complicated perforating and multi-phase flow events.

"The addition of the Perforation Flow Laboratory to our PerfPro process allows us to provide operators with the information needed to make better, more knowledgeable decisions when perforating a well to optimize production," said Jody Powers, president, Halliburton Energy Services. "The laboratory facility is an important asset necessary to develop more accurate, quantitative tools and processes to analyze real-time data and deliver value-added real-time solutions."

The PerfPro process allows technical advisors to improve the design and optimization of perforating systems and to optimize well inflow performance using a standardized process and analysis tools. A three-pronged approach, using laboratory tests, theoretical models, and field tests, provides operators with a process that can quantitatively determine the optimal perforating system design for a given reservoir formation. An integrated analysis of the results will yield a better predictive model with an associated range of accuracy for use in optimizing the perforating system design for specific reservoirs.

The Perforating Flow Laboratory, which is based at the company's Jet Research Center (JRC) facility in Alvarado, Texas, has conducted more than 80 perforating flow lab tests to date. The lab includes a pressure chamber, a wellbore section mounted against one face of the core, and a flow loop. The pressure chamber applies in-situ stress to a reservoir or outcrop core. The flow loop applies pore and wellbore pressure to appropriate core sample boundaries. After the shaped charge is detonated to create the perforation, the flow loop pressures can be changed to induce flow from or into the perforation.

The laboratory can quantify the impact of different perforation design variables (tubing versus wireline-conveyed, charge size and type, under versus overbalanced), fluid type, and skin source on completion efficiency, therefore, on well productivity. When linked with reservoir characterization analysis, the design of the perforating system and the well completion can be tailored for specific application in the reservoir of interest.