Shale Play and DP between Ball Drop Sleeve Groupings

[johnchrc]

If you had a well with 50 sleeves, 5 per zone and just fraced all of them and were ready to flow back but couldn't because of blockage in Sleeve 5 in first zone, what kind of pressure differential would you expect between zones?

Say ball is jammed into a seat but will dissolve in 30 days. You want to produce all zones now but can only flow through top 5 sleeves due to blockage in Sleeve 5. I wonder how much you could expect pressure to drop above into flowing wellbore and buildup (I assume to pore pressure in lower zones.

Can you expect any significant differences in zones if zones are all producing? I would think they should be very close or you would have a different producing zone altogether.

I have no well specifics, just a general situation where I want to put a bypass in ball seats so balls that swell before dissolving don't plug the well for a month when it is ready to produce. I realized that balls can become stuck during frac at high pressure and then you either let it dissolve or mill it out.

Thanks for any input on the shale plays. I really don't know and we cement for zonal isolation so have never heard this discussed.

- CJ

 

[johnchrc]

More info to go with initial question....

I guess I'm looking for a production or completions engineer who has experience with shale producers and knows what downhole producing and shut-in pressures are. The more examples of down hole well conditions after completing , the better understanding I'll have. If the situation occurs, I don't hear about it because I'm not a Field Engineer. I deal more with manufacturing and design problems.

I could ask questions about running these horizontal wells and why procedures are done for hours. I'm just don't have anymore information other than producers do no want dissolvable ball, that swell initially, flowing into next sleeve and blocking flow until is dissolves enough to flow through ID of sleeve.

- CJ