The invention for increasing oil well production by optimizing the process of switching to production mode after hydraulic fracturing, patented by scientists from Skoltech and the Gazprom Neft Scientific and Technical Center, was recognized as the best in the Big Business nomination of the Successful Patent project. A total of 129 domestic patent holders from 21 regions of the country took part in the competition. Among the winners in other nominations are N. F. Gamalei NITSEM with a patent for the Sputnik-V vaccine against COVID-19, the inventor of simulators for the rehabilitation of patients with cerebral palsy, the system of interval control of Russian Railways trains.

Almost every new well undergoes a production intensification operation after drilling, and hydraulic fracturing (FRACKING) is one of the main methods of increasing hydrocarbon production at oil and gas wells. The method consists in creating a system of cracks in an oil or gas bearing formation by pumping liquid with proppant particles (ceramic granules) to create a highly conductive porous channel from the depths of the formation to the well and increase the flow of gas, oil, gas condensate or a mixture thereof to the bottom of the well.

After the hydraulic fracturing operation, during aggressive cleaning, proppant particles can be washed out and crumbled into fractures and the productive half-length of the crack decreases. This undesirable phenomenon can reduce the conductivity of the fracturing fracture and negatively affect production. Existing approaches do not allow us to quantify the contribution of such effects and develop an optimal scenario for putting the well into a mode in which production and long-term fracture conductivity are maximized.

“The very idea of modeling the crack cleaning process was first expressed by Skoltech Professor Andrey Osiptsov around 2017. Grigory Paderin and I needed to understand why hydraulic fracturing cracks, according to all hydrodynamic studies and actual production data, produce less than they should according to the planned design of hydraulic fracturing," recalls Egor Shel, an employee of the Gazprom Neft Scientific and Technical Center. – After a long scientific search, we, as well as colleagues at Skoltech, came to the conclusion that the whole thing is most likely in the process of cleaning cracks, which occurs after hydraulic fracturing, and which no one before us had tried to model, control or even measure. Since 2018, my colleagues and I have been working on the task: we conducted field experiments on data collection in 2019, laboratory experiments in 2020, simultaneously created a physical and mathematical model of the process and, finally, developed the concept of controlled commissioning of a fractured well in 2021, which allows us to neutralize the negative effects of undertreating a fractured fracture and increase production.”

“It was a real team effort, where there was synergy between our scientific group and colleagues from Gazpromneft-STC. – notes Andrey Osiptsov, Professor and director of the Center for Energy Transfer and ESG at Skoltech. – On behalf of Skoltech, Sergey Boronin, together with a scientific group, was engaged in the creation of a hydrodynamic model for cleaning the well-crack-formation system, and Albert Weinstein coordinated the conduct of a pilot industrial work campaign at the wells of the Priobskoye field in the perimeter of the Gazpromneft-Khantos subsidiary and interpreted the result.The very possibility of implementing such an ambitious project, from the concept of the optimal scenario for commissioning through modeling the associated geomechanics and hydrodynamics problem to testing on real wells in the fields and subsequent interpretation of the data, would not have been possible without the comprehensive support of our partners from Gazpromneft STC, especially Grigory Paderin and Egor Shel, who were directly involved in the scientific work and the organization of ODA in a subsidiary company.”

In March 2021, after a series of publications in industry journals (in particular in JPSE), the team registered the FSIS patent (Rospatent) for Invention No. 2745684, which this year received the award of the "Successful Patent" competition. 

The team of authors thanks colleagues from the NTC Intellectual Property Office, especially Natalia Denisenko, for their help in drafting a patent application and software, and filing a patent for the competition.