Fulcrum Technology

Horizontal drilling has the potential to increase well productivity by exposing more of the reservoir to the wellbore, while also reducing operational costs and environmental impacts. In North America unconventional reservoirs, multistage hydraulic fracturing is the preferred completion technique for long horizontal wells.

Several factors affect the success of a fracturing treatment, one of which is cement quality. If there are any channels for fracturing fluid and pressure to escape behind the casing, the efficiency of the fracturing operations will be reduced.

Fulcrum cement-conveyed frac performance technology optimizes hydraulic isolation in the horizontal well and enables more efficient fracturing without adding operational complication or cost. During cementing, Fulcrum technology interacts with the fluid that remains after drilling to reduce the potential for fluid communication through any channels. More efficient fracturing means less wasted fluid, proppant, and energy—which in turn reduces environmental impacts because less resources are needed.

For example, after five horizontal wells with 10,000-ft laterals were cemented using Fulcrum technology for a customer in the Permian Basin, measurements of the quality of the cement between casing and formation confirmed superior zonal isolation compared with offset wells cemented with conventional methods. OneStim hydraulically fractured these five wells and early production was compared with public data from representative offset wells within a 10-mile radius that had been completed in the last two years using conventional stimulation methods. Normalized by lateral length, the mean three-month cumulative liquids production in the five wells treated with Fulcrum technology was 22% higher compared with the offset wells.