US 12,241,361 B2
Method and system to determine optimal perforation orientation for hydraulic fracturing slant wells
Kaiming Xia, Dhahran (SA); and Yufeng Cui, Beijing (CN)
Assigned to Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran (SA)
Filed by Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran (SA)
Filed on Aug. 24, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/410,756.
Prior Publication US 2023/0064121 A1, Mar. 2, 2023
Int. Cl. E21B 47/00 (2012.01); E21B 43/26 (2006.01); E21B 47/002 (2012.01); G01V 1/40 (2006.01)
CPC E21B 47/0025 (2020.05) [E21B 43/26 (2013.01); G01V 1/40 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for determining an optimal perforation orientation of a subterranean formation for a hydraulic fracturing treatment, the method comprising:
calculating, with one or more hardware processors, in-situ stresses from a log for a portion of a wellbore formed from a terranean surface into a subterranean formation;
transforming, with the one or more hardware processors, the calculated in-situ stresses from the log for the portion of the wellbore from a global coordinate system to a wellbore coordinate system at a perforation cluster of the wellbore that comprises at least one perforation tunnel for the hydraulic fracturing treatment;
transforming, with the one or more hardware processors, the transformed, calculated in-situ stresses from the wellbore coordinate system to a perforation coordinate system through at least one rotation matrix;
calculating, with the one or more hardware processors, a perforation point in the wellbore coordinate system for respective trial perforation phase angles of the perforation cluster;
transforming, with the one or more hardware processors, the perforation point in the wellbore coordinate system to the global coordinate system translated without rotations for the respective trial perforation phase angles;
selecting, with the one or more hardware processors, a target perforation phase angle from the respective trial perforation phase angles at a minimum breakdown pressure for the perforation cluster; and
calculating, with the one or more hardware processors, a perforation azimuth and a perforation dip for the perforation cluster at the minimum breakdown pressure for the target perforation phase angle, wherein the perforation azimuth and the target perforation phase angle are used to control one or more perforation devices being rotated and charged to fire for the hydraulic fracturing treatment at the perforation azimuth and the perforation dip to reduce operation error.