Fishbones Stimulation Technique and Simulate It with an Iraqi Well

Fishbones is a modern technology that provides full control of the hydraulic fracturing process, by creating up to several hundred laterals that orthogonally extend out from the wellbore. This has a pivotal role in increasing the effective wellbore radius and improving reservoir communication. Some cases of fishbones have been conducted and tested successfully, which investigated its effect in producing well under steady-state conditions. Fishbones stimulation could reduce potential water or gas conning, reduce skin factor, and increase well productivity. It also increased production in low permeable formations and could penetrate impermeable layers and improve communication throughout the reservoir. This paper attempts to show that fishbones is of interest and compared to an unstimulated well in one of the Iraqi’s oil fields and compare the results with the conventional method using ECLIPSE software from Schlumberger. To quantify those effects on fishbones well performance, there are controllable and uncontrollable parameters. These parameters include fishbones needles number (cumulative production can be increased up to 35%), fishbones annulus size (cumulative production can be increased up to 9%), fishbones needle length (cumulative production can be increased up to 13%), reservoir thickness (cumulative production can be increased up to 23%), and reservoir heterogeneity (cumulative production can be increased up to 11%). It was found to increase production by up to 60%.