1.

Aspects
1..1
1..2
1..3

of poorly consolidated formations

sedimentation and consolidated formations
petrophysics
mechanical properties

2. Conventional hydraulic fracturing modeling

2..1 model components
2..2 Fracture mechanics fundamentals
2..3 Hydraulic fracture propagation model
2..4 Comparison of fracture propagation models

1) ASPECTS OF POORLY CONSOLIDATED FORMATION

The definition of consolidate formations can be interpreted as the formations with

depositional environment that favor all the process required to its drilling,
exploration,

production,

fracturing,

among

others.

The

poorly

consolidated

formations are most common than the people think; one of the most important
formations of this kind exist in the Gulf of Mexico.

The poorly consolidated

formations have to be handled with more care because the petrophysical and
mechanical characteristics of these formations makes the normal operation a harder
procedures; and these procedures imply more investigation, resources and of
course, money. The first part of this work is about aspects related with depositional
environment, petrophysical and mechanical characteristics of poorly consolidated
formations.
1.1SEDIMENTATION AND CONSOLIDATED FORMATION
The poorly consolidated formation have direct relationship with highly depositional
environments, this term refers to the environments in which enough energy was to
be present to transport large materials such as rocks and boulders, on the other
hand a low energy depositional environment is only able to transport materials such
a fine sands; The first one occurs in a relatively short time span, so the process to
obtain the formation are not well done so the characteristics of the obtained
formation are not equal to the Consolidated formation. The most common transport
methods to produce poorly consolidated formation corresponds to deltaic or
turbiditic depositional setting. This two environments have in common the facility of
how they can move sediments and the fast time spin buried. Also they can transport
considerable amounts of coarse material and very find sediments. They are not the
only scenarios in which the poorly consolidated formation can be developed, but the
next process description correspond to them.

The find sediments can be in suspension in marine waters to then flocculate and
settle as lumps in deep water; in turn they create a blanket on top of the sandstone
deposit, generating impermeable layers after burial.
The rapid burial and the presence of the impermeable layers, may effectively trap
the fluid and the particles into sealed deposit. This fluid will be ejected later in the
subsequent burial and compaction.

Rapid burial, along with the presence of overlain fine sediments (i.e. low
permeability layers), may effectively trap the fluid and particles into a sealed
deposit. As a result, fluid ejection is constrained during subsequent burial and
compaction. For this deposit (Grains and fluid), the overburden is supported by both
of them (grains and fluid). The relation is expressed as:

S v = v + P p
Where:

Sv

= Overburden

=Effective Stress

Pp

=Pore Pressure

To understand the influences of the solid part (grains) and the fluids, is define that
the effective stress is supported by the solid part and the pore pressure is supported
by the fluid inside the pore.
As was described before in this work, in sealed deposits the fluid cannot be ejected
upon burial, so the overburden is mainly supported by the trapped fluid, and then

the pressure in the solid part (grains) is lower, hence the compaction in this
deposits cannot be compared with a normal compacted basin.
The lithification is directly affected for the pressure between the contact points, so
this pressure reductions is going to be reflected in the speed of the lithification. Now
the deposits are capable to contain hydrocarbons, but they can start to produce
them before the cementation and lithification process ends completely.

The lithification process slows down, due to the reduction of pressure at the contact
points, which ultimately leads to formations that are capable to contain
hydrocarbons, but that may be put in production when the cementation/lithification
process is still incomplete. This changes in the normal process of cementation and
lithification can be seen in the tangential contacts between the grains. The contacts
between grains are classified as tangential, long, convex and sutured, and the
classification depends directly of the effective stress.
1.2PETROPHYSICS.
The

diversity,

different

characteristics,

sub-environments

and

variability

is

something really common into the poorly consolidated rocks. This is one of the
consequences of the depositional environments described before.

The
deltaic
environment present
different

types

of

structures as a consequence of waves, tides and

strength of the main river currents. The sediments deposited along the proximal
margin would tend to be of better quality than those located toward distal margins
because the coarser sediments are deposited at the proximal margin. The types of
architectural elements presented in the turbiditic environment correspond to sheets,
channels

and

levees.

Thats

why

single

structure

may

have

different

characteristics.
Although the characteristics that define a poorly consolidated formation are too
much, these kind of formation present mostly very good quality.
The different books and papers about the Gulf of Mexico corroborate that the theory
of poorly consolidated formation is completely true and also compare the
characteristics of this formation with the poorly consolidated formation around the
world to conclude that they exhibit, in average, excellent quality, with porosity in a
range of 30s and also good permeability, associated with a sand size particles
arranged in moderate-sorted structure. All these properties are the result of the
quick burial of the sediments prevented comprehensive compaction and lithification
of sediments; in other words the mechanical compaction and the cement generation
still occur, but to a lesser degree. All these characteristics make the poorly

consolidated formation really susceptible to ambient stress changes caused by

reservoir depletion.

References

Hydraulic Fracturing of Soft Formations in the Gulf Coast. SPE Formation

Damage Control Symposium,
Trends in Shallow Sediment Pore Pressure Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
Stress-Dependent Permeability: Characterization and Modeling. SPE Paper No.
56813 e.g.
Rock Mechanics for Industry; Amadei, Kranz, Scott & Smeallie (eds.)
Trends in Shallow Sediment Pore Pressure Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
Ostermeier, R.M., Pelletier, J.H., Winker, C.D., and Nicholson, J.W.
Hydraulic Fracturing Stimulation in Poorly Consolidated Sand: Mechanisms and
Consequences. Mohamad Khodaverdian, SPE, and Paul McElfresh, SPE, Baker Oil Tools. SPE
63233
Fundamentals on Physical Geology. Seerepat Jain