System for monitoring fluids during well stimulation processes
AssigneeAtlantic Richfield Company
InventorC. Mark Pearson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Certain wellbore fluid stimulation treatments may be monitored by a system including instrumented manifolds which may be connected between a base fluid source and a blending unit and between the blending unit and fluid injection pumps, respectively for measuring flow rates of the base fluid, the fluid additives and the fluid composition formed by the base fluid and the fluid additives. Instruments are also provided for measuring fluid temperature, pH, viscosity and flow behavior indexes (n', K') and fluid density. Quality control and determination of pressure losses in the wellbore together with modeling of stimulation treatments may be carried out by the continuous monitoring of parameters with the base fluid manifold and the mixed composition manifold.
Claims12
A system for monitoring the quality of a fluid composition for injection into a wellbore for performing a formation treatment process, said system comprising:
- at least one instrument manifold adapted to be interposed between a source of fluid and pump means for pumping said fluid to a wellbore, said one instrument manifold including first and second manifold members interconnected by flow conduit means, said manifold members each including respective fluid inlet and outlet conduit connectors for connecting said manifold to a source of fluid and to conduit means for conducting fluid from said manifold;
- and
- a sample flow conduit connected to said manifold for receiving a sample of fluid flow through said manifold, said sample flow conduit including plural viscometer means interposed therein for measuring at least the apparent viscosity of said fluid at respective selected shear rates for determining the consistency index (K') and the Power Law Index (n') of said fluid prior to injection of said fluid into a wellbore.
A system for monitoring selected parameters of a fluid composition being injected into a wellbore for performing hydraulic fracturing, said fluid composition including a base fluid comprising at least 90% of said fluid composition and being gellable at a selected temperature and an additive including a solid proppant to be added to said base fluid prior to injection into said wellbore, said system including:
- a first manifold adapted to be interposed between a source of said base fluid and a blending apparatus for blending said base fluid with said proppant, said first manifold including spaced apart manifold members interconnected by conduit means, said conduit means including flow measuring means interposed therein for measuring the volumetric flow rate of said base fluid flowing from said source to said blending unit;
- means for sampling a quantity of said base fluid on a substantially continuous basis including a first sample flow conduit loop connected to said first manifold, viscometer means interposed in said first flow conduit loop for measuring the viscosity of said base fluid prior to adding said proppant;
- computing means connected to said first manifold and adapted to receive electrical signals from said viscometer means for calculating the consistency index and the Power Law index of said base fluid;
- a second manifold adapted to be interposed between said blending unit and pump means for pumping said fluid composition into a wellbore, said second manifold including spaced apart manifold members and conduit means interconnecting said manifold members and including flow measuring means for measuring the volumetric flow rate of said fluid composition and density measuring means interposed in said conduit means for measuring the density of the fluid composition flowing through said second manifold;
- and
- a second sample flow conduit loop connected to said second manifold including viscometer means interposed therein for withdrawing a sample of said fluid composition for conduction through viscometer means to determine the viscosity of said fluid composition prior to injection into said wellbore.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.