Halliburton Debuts Automated Fracturing Tech in US Shale Fields

_ Over the years, fracturing operations have undergone a major overhaul. Sites that once had single wells now feature advanced configurations such as zipper fracs, simulfracs, trimulfracs, and even quadfracs. Combined with 24-hour pumping, the complexity of this work has increased substantially. “We’re at the end of what’s capable for one individual to handle,” said Shawn Stasiuk, vice president for production enhancement for Halliburton, which has recently debuted an innovation it calls the “Octiv Auto Frac.” The service company’s automated hydraulic fracturing technology suite includes its latest line of advanced pumping units along with its fracturing software and monitoring platforms. In January, as part of a collaboration with Permian Basin independent producer Coterra Energy, Halliburton announced the first fully automated hydraulic fracturing program. It allows for remote control and execution of fracturing designs with the push of a button. The initial rollout with Coterra resulted in a 17% increase in stage efficiency. Halliburton has since made the technology available across its completions program in the Permian. “The deployment of intelligent automation for hydraulic fracturing helps us execute stages consistently and provides us with more autonomy and control over the completion process,” Tom Jorden, CEO of Coterra, said in a statement announcing the partnership. Switching Off Manual, Turning on Automation When it comes to traditional or manual fracturing operations, each command issued to the fleet requires human intervention. On average, a typical fleet undergoes about 30 manual changes per operation, according to Halliburton. By contrast, the company’s automated fracturing technology eliminates much of the manual intervention and relies on the system to make thousands of decisions that are acted on in real time. Halliburton reports that its automation technology executes up to 14,000 actions during a single stage, reducing the workload on human operators by 88%, while executing 2,720% more setpoints than human controllers. The shift to automated setpoints has shown benefits in the field. With the automated system, variables such as treating pressure and rate adjustments are tightly controlled, resulting in smoother and more predictable operations. By tracking key performance indicators, Halliburton said it demonstrated a 4.6% increase in hydraulic efficiency, a significant improvement given the industry’s historical struggle to achieve even a 1% increase. The company reported that it saw a 44% improvement in time loss during the rate ramp‑up period. These details and others can be found in the company’s new paper, SPE 223511, which was presented at the recent SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference and Exhibition (HFTC) in the Houston area. “We can translate this impact given job designs,” the company’s authors said in their paper. “For example, we will evaluate the following job parameters for crew pumping: 100 bpm designed rate, 10,000 bbl/stage, 15‑min stage transition time, and 30 pumping days/month. This scenario would reduce pumping time per stage by 4.7 minutes (4.7%) and an uplift in throughput of 151,500 bbl (3.9%) each month.”