Horizontal drilling and multistage fracturing completions are becoming widespread practices in the development of Western Siberia’s lowpermeability oil fields. More than 100 wells have been completed to date – with success from both operational and production perspectives. The majority of applications were applied in newly drilled wells, where it is possible to install openhole packers and frac ports for isolating fracture stages.

The concept of multistage fracturing was transferred to old areas of brownfields, where sidetracks drilling was the main method of increasing oil recovery. Traditional sidetracks were associated with risks of production underachievement in low-permeability environments – even after stimulation treatments.

The ability to drill sidetracks with a considerable horizontal section, and stimulating them with several fracturing stages would improve production significantly. However, slim wellbores of sidetracks significantly restrict completion option choice and abrasive perforating via coiled tubing (CT) becomes a universal enabler for multistage fracturing treatments. One of the greatest challenges in such a process is isolation between the stages. Fiberenhanced proppant plugs were used for better proppant grains suspension, which sets the plug in the most efficient, homogeneous way.

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