A Hybrid, Neuro-Genetic Approach to Hydraulic Fracture Treatment Design and Optimization

This paper summarizes the efforts conducted toward the development of a new and novel methodology for optimal design of hydraulic fracture treatments in a gas storage field. What makes this methodology unique is its capability to provide engineers with a near optimum design of a frac job despite very little (almost none) reservoir data availability. Lack of engineering data for hydraulic fracture design and evaluation had made use of 2D or 3D hydraulic fracture simulators impractical. As a result, prior designs of hydraulic frac jobs had been reduced to guess works and in some cases dependent on engineers with many years of experience on this particular field, who had developed an intuition about this formation and its possible response to different treatments. This was the main cause of several frac job failures every year. On the other hand, in case of relocation of engineers with experience on this particular field the risk of even more frac job failures was imminent.