First Successful Fracturing Application in Unconventional Gas Reservoir in Colombia: Field Case

Colombia’s oil industry has been on a rapid development over the past couple of years, and foreseeing the upcoming challenges for production maintenance the E&P companies have driven their efforts towards discovering and developing in unconventional formations. The Porquero formation (Lower to Middle Miocene), located in the Lower Magdalena Basin, consists of deepwater massive shales and shaly sandstones. In late 2010, the operator company (Pacific Rubiales Energy (PRE)) drilled the Well A-1X having as exploration target gas condensate in the Porquero formation in the Plato sub-basin in the Lower Magdalena. This paper goes through the process in which the Well A-1X well was evaluated and considered to be a candidate for Hydraulic Fracturing, the design process and analysis of the complexity of the Porquero formation, and finally the execution of the first Hydraulic Fracture in an unconventional, high-shale, low-perm gas sand formation in Colombia. The pilot hydraulic fracture was an economical approach to test the Porquero formation and estimate their productivity and reserves; a post-fracture 4-day well test showed PI improvement of 300% (3 times). This pilot frac job was carried only on one of four perforated intervals. Its successful development opens an opportunity to evolve into more complex completions such as multistage fracturing and horizontal well development for the field.