Evaluation of fracture treatment type on the recovery of gas from the cotton valley formation

Every tight gas well needs to be stimulated with a hydraulic fracture treatment to produce natural gas at economic flow rates and recover a volume of gas that provides an acceptable return on investment. Over the past few decades, many different types of fracture fluids, propping agents and treatment sizes have been tried in the Cotton Valley formation. The treatment design engineer has to choose the optimum fluid, optimum proppant, optimum treatment size and make sure the optimum treatment is mixed and pumped in the field. These optimum values also depend on drilling costs, fracturing costs and other economic parameters; such as gas prices, operating costs and taxes. Using information from the petroleum literature, numerical and analytical simulators, and statistical analysis of production data, this research provides a detailed economic evaluation of the Cotton Valley wells drilled in the Elm Grove field operated by Matador Resources to determine not only the optimum treatment type, but also the optimum treatment volume as a function of drilling costs, completion costs, operating costs and gas prices. This work also provides an evaluation of well performance as a function of the fracture treatment type by reviewing production data from the Carthage and Oak Hill Cotton Valley fields in Texas and the Elm Grove field in Louisiana.