Case Study: West Africa Operating Company achieves higher infill well oil production with SLB BroadBand Shield

West Texas Infill Wells Achieve Oil Production Comparable to Offset Parent Well

SLB worked with West Africa Operating Company, a West Texas operator in the Wolfcamp Shale, Delaware Basin, to address the risk that infill wells would underperform nearby parent wells because of fracture-driven interference. The customer planned zipper fracs on two infill wells only about 500 ft apart, with a producing parent well roughly 1,000 ft away, and wanted to avoid unwanted communication during stimulation.

SLB deployed BroadBand Shield fracture geometry control service, along with WellWatcher Stim monitoring on one infill well, to constrain fracture growth and provide near real-time confirmation of downhole events. The result was no negative fracture-driven interactions and no detrimental impact on the parent well, while both infill wells outperformed the parent well; Infill Well 1 achieved about 10% higher production performance than Infill Well 2, and the operator successfully mitigated negative fracture hits in spacing under 1,000 ft.