Tip screenout is a treatment technique in which fracture growth is intentionally stopped at the fracture tip during injection by transporting proppant-laden fluid to the tip, where proppant accumulates and forms a bridge. As proppant builds up at the tip, fluid leakoff increases and the net pressure rises, causing the fracture to widen instead of extending further in length.
The treatment continues with increasing proppant concentration, filling and packing the fracture to create a wide, highly conductive fracture. Tip screenout is typically identified by a sharp increase in net pressure during pumping, often corresponding to a slope of 1 or greater on a pressure-versus-time plot.
This method is used to generate wider fractures and improve fracture conductivity, particularly in formations where fracture width is more important than fracture length. Successful design requires careful control of the pumping schedule, including proper pad and early-slurry stages, sufficient fluid viscosity, and a gradual increase in proppant concentration to achieve screenout at the desired time.
Once screenout occurs, fracture length growth stops while fracture width continues to increase, thereby improving proppant packing along the fracture. In addition, wider propped fractures help reduce the impact of non-Darcy flow, where high fluid velocities create additional pressure losses, thereby improving overall production performance.
