Frac Design Screening Calculator
Estimate total proppant, fluid volumes, and completion costs. Includes EUR sensitivity to proppant loading with diminishing returns analysis.
Completion Design
Results
Total Proppant
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Total Fluid
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Total Cost
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Total Clusters
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Cost / Stage
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Cost / Cluster
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Cost / Foot
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Proppant Cost %
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Cost Breakdown
Cost vs Proppant Loading with EUR Sensitivity
EUR ~ proppant^0.3 (empirical diminishing returns for typical shale). Normalized to your current design = 1.0x EUR.
How this was calculated
Total proppant: Lateral length x proppant per foot (lb/ft).
Total fluid: Lateral length x fluid per foot (bbl/ft).
Total cost: (proppant lbs x $/lb) + (fluid bbl x $/bbl) + (stages x $/stage).
EUR sensitivity: EUR ~ proppant_loading^0.3, a power-law relationship observed in many unconventional basins. This captures the diminishing returns: doubling proppant does not double EUR.
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Completions engineering for unconventional wells involves balancing proppant loading, fluid volumes, stage count, and cluster spacing to maximize EUR per dollar spent. This screening calculator provides a quick estimate of total material volumes and costs for a given completion design.
The relationship between proppant loading and EUR follows a power-law with diminishing returns. Published studies across the Permian, Eagle Ford, and Bakken basins suggest an exponent of approximately 0.3, meaning that doubling proppant loading from 1,500 to 3,000 lb/ft typically increases EUR by about 23%, not 100%. This has significant economic implications for completion optimization.
Modern completions have trended toward higher proppant intensity (2,000-3,000+ lb/ft) and tighter cluster spacing (3-5 clusters per stage), though optimal designs vary by basin, formation, and commodity price environment.
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