Patent 7409992 was granted and assigned to Schlumberger on August, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention provides an apparatus for use in perforating a well having a plurality of explosive charges. Each explosive charge is adapted to generate a perforation tunnel in the formation adjacent to the well. In one embodiment, explosive charges are oriented to create perforation tunnels that converge at a location within the formation in order to create a fracture initiation plane capable of mitigating or avoiding hydraulic fracturing complications.