American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2022 - 67

SpecialReport: Resource Science
such as clay swelling. "
According to Sweatt, the novel friction
reducer line enables customers to create
the desired amount of viscosity and place
more proppant without as much concern
about the water salinity.
Sweatt also highlights new shale stabilizers
and surfactants that work together
to preserve production levels and prevent
long-term issues. " These products allow
operators to more consistently meet initial
production goals, maintain production
above type curve and avoid long-term
production issues such as corrosion and
biological growth, " he says.
" To formulate chemical packages that
support both short- and long-term objectives
more effectively, we are deepening
our understanding of how chemicals interact
with the reservoir during and after
the completion, " Sweatt says. " Our research
has solidified the fact that even wells
within the same reservoir may have different
needs and that a common chemical
package will not always address them. "
With that truth in mind, Sweatt recommends
tailoring fluid systems to each well's
mineralogy. " We are hiring skilled researchers
and investing in best-in-class laboratory
equipment to ensure we can analyze
each well's minerology and predict how
chemicals will respond accurately, " he says.
" Our goal is to develop custom fluid systems
that preserve the rock's integrity, which
will optimize production rates and reduce
failures during the well's life cycle. " ❒
Advanced Equipment
Accelerates Completions
By Colter Cookson
To optimize well economics, operators
need both an effective completion design
and the ability to implement that design
quickly and affordably. For completion
crews, the quest for efficiency means
constantly revaluating proven processes
to eliminate even brief intervals of downtime.
They understand that faster completions
accelerate producers' ability to
generate revenue and deliver energy that
is critical to both modern life and U.S.
influence abroad.
Smarter completions simultaneously
reduce environmental impacts and safety
risks by helping operators bring each
well on line with fewer trips to and from
the pad. These benefits can be hard to
quantify precisely, but even the most conservative
and straightforward estimates
show they are significant. Given these
realities, many service companies express
pride in helping completion engineers
get more for less. Their latest equipment
empowers hydraulic fracturing fleets to
pump longer, simplifies post-frac sand
control and improves refrac economics.
Electrifying frac fleets can help operators
improve efficiency and reduce emissions,
observes Chris Buckley, president
of ST9 Gas + Oil, a subsidiary of Liberty
Oilfield Services. To maximize these benefits
and reduce the costs associated with
building electric fleets, he says ST9 has
set out to create purpose-built electric
frac pumps.
" A traditional electric fleet uses conventional
pumps designed for mechanical
drive trains, " Buckley describes. " This
lets operators run on natural gas, but the
power efficiency can be low. To boost it,
we decided to use electric motors developed
by the automotive industry, which has invested
billions of dollars improving motors'
efficiency, power density and reliability. "
Automotive Technology Transfer
Each of ST9's digital frac pumps is
driven by 10 electric motors, an approach
Buckley says has several advantages. " The
first is redundancy, " he begins. " If a motor
goes down, the pump will keep working
with nine. If a second motor fails, the pump
once again will recalculate torque requirements
and keep pumping. And so on. "
With pumps driven by electric
motors from the auto
industry, ST9 Gas + Oil
says it can reduce the
costs associated with
building electric hydraulic
fracturing fleets. In addition
to offering environmental
benefits, the company's
pumps simplify operations
by automatically dividing
work among themselves to
achieve target rates.
MARCH 2022 67
American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2022

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