Highlights
Benefits
- Integrates fully with all RCX service modules
- Achieves testing objectives and avoids plugging in challenging high-solids and LCM muds thanks to full-area filters and larger balancing lines
- Provides deployment versatility with newly designed elements for both water- and oil-based mud systems
- Enables data acquisition for CCUS regulatory compliance and long-term monitoring
Applications
- Ultralow mobility reservoir sampling
- Micro-frac analysis in ultrahard rocks
- Transient analysis requiring deeper depth of investigation for geomechanical modeling and optimizing injection strategies
- Micro-frac analysis for CO2 injection feasibility in saline aquifers and depleted reservoirs
- Caprock integrity evaluation to ensure long-term CO2 containment
- Seal verification and fracture propagation studies for CCUS projects
- Precise stress measurements in unconventional shale wells
Overview
Isolating hard-rock intervals with very low permeabilities for reliable fluid sampling is challenging for conventional tools, which often struggle to maintain stable seals and withstand the high differential pressures these formations will create when trying to flow fluids from them. The Maxima™ Frac straddle packer from Baker Hughes is specifically designed to address these challenges, enabling testing in reservoirs that conventional tools can’t reach.
As the latest addition to the Baker Hughes fluid characterization and testing portfolio, the Maxima Frac straddle packer uses two custom-designed inflatable packer elements to isolate a 1-meter zone of the borehole. By locking in this interval of interest, you get the stable, reliable isolation you need to test and sample in extremely hard rock formations, including ultralow mobility. Additionally, the same technology enables micro-fracturing of the formation to perform geomechanical stress measurements or support Frac & Flow applications—capabilities that go beyond what other straddle packers on the market offer.
Even when this Straddle Packer is part of a new platform, it also combines easily and seamlessly with all service modules in the Reservoir Characterization eXplorer™ (RCX™) service platform. It’s built to handle serious pressure, with a market-leading 10,000-psi differential pressure working limit in 8 ½-in. hole sizes and a 6,000-psi working limit in 12 ¼-in. hole sizes. The active hydraulic retract mechanism fully pulls back the elements, even if tool communication is lost, so you can safely retrieve the tool without sticking.
With these capabilities, you can confidently perform a range of fluid evaluations that were previously not possible in challenging formations, including:
- Formation fluid sampling in low-mobility rocks. The straddle packer’s durable mandrel assembly withstands high differential pressures, giving you access to clean, representative fluid samples from low-mobility rocks.
- Propagation studies of induced fractures in hard rock. The Maxima Frac straddle packer lets you inject at pressures of 10,000 psi above hydrostatic in 8 ½-in. holes and 6,000 psi above hydrostatic in 12 ¼-in. holes. As a result, you can fracture much harder formations during micro-frac testing and determine yield strengths and track fracture growth with greater confidence.
- Deep transient analysis farther from the wellbore. The Maxima Frac straddle packer’s high differential-pressure capability supports higher flow rates. And when combined with our new Maxima™ Flow pumps, you can extend the depth of investigation by up to three times compared to conventional tools.
With its ability to perform in-situ stress measurements in the hardest formations, Maxima Frac eliminates the need for costly surface preparation, saving time and resources for our customers. Its robust design also enables sampling under the highest differential pressures, making it ideal for ultra-low permeability reservoirs where conventional tools fall short.
Contact Baker Hughes today to learn how the Maxima Frac straddle packer opens up new testing possibilities in hard-rock, low-mobility formations and how it’s a leap forward in capability, reliability, and efficiency.