BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to downhole tools and more particularly to super-stages and methods of configuration super-stages for fracturing downhole earth formations.

2. Description of the Related Art

Boreholes are drilled deep into the earth for many applications such as carbon dioxide sequestration, geothermal production, and hydrocarbon exploration and production. In all of the applications, the boreholes are drilled such that they pass through or allow access to a material (e.g., a gas or fluid) contained in a formation located below the earth's surface. Different types of tools and instruments may be disposed in the boreholes to perform various tasks and measurements.

Horizontal boreholes are typically used for fracing operations to extract material from shales and other earth formations. Typical sections of a horizontal wells are fractured using frac-stages that are configured to output injection fluids to increase pressures within the formation and thus fracture the formation and release the desired materials for extraction. Earth formations are composed of multiple minerals, rocks, geological formations, etc. and thus will respond to fluid pressures and fracturing differently based on the composition thereof. Accordingly, to increase production rates and improve fracturing of the formation, a large number of frac-stages can be deployed downhole. In such arrangements, different frac-stages can be configured to output injection fluids at different rates to fracture the formation. Because of the different injection rates, and the variability of the earth formation, alternating frac-stages of high- and low-injection rates may be deployed to increase the chances of efficient fracturing. However, such increase in frac-stages can be costly and/or still be inefficient for complete formation fracturing. Accordingly, it may be advantageous to develop improved fracturing mechanisms.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for optimizing fracturing schedules located along horizontal wellbores. The systems and method, in some embodiments, include obtaining drilling cuttings during a drilling operation representative of a predetermined interval of the horizontal wellbore, performing at least one analytical process on the obtained drilling cuttings to determine at least one geomechanical property of the interval of the obtained drilling cuttings for the interval, generating a formation analysis estimation for the interval from the, wherein the formation analysis estimation comprises at least one of (i) a brittleness of the formation at the interval or (ii) a minimum horizontal stress of the formation at the interval, and based on the formation analysis estimation, at least one of (i) configuring a super-stage for deployment to the interval to perform a fracturing operation or (ii) designing a fracturing schedule to be performed to frac the formation at the interval.

