Most underperforming hydraulic fracture treatments don't fail because of a clever input nobody thought of — they fail because a foundational input was wrong. Get the fundamentals right and the rest is tuning.
Stress profile
The minimum horizontal stress profile decides fracture height, containment and net pressure. A profile built from sonic logs and calibrated to a DFIT is non-negotiable for any new field. Reusing a template from the next basin over is the most common cause of height-growth surprises.
Fluid efficiency
Leak-off is a property of the rock and the fluid, not a constant. A step-down test gives a defensible fluid-efficiency value; without one, the proppant transport model is guessing.
Proppant transport
Carrying proppant deep into the fracture depends on slurry rheology, rate, and the fluid's ability to keep proppant suspended. Underestimating settling is a common reason for short propped lengths.
Stage spacing
Stage spacing determines stress shadow, fracture interference and ultimate drainage. Modeling spacing against geomechanics — not defaulting to last year's program — is consistently where the next uplift comes from.
For carbonates, an alternative may dominate — see acid vs hydraulic fracturing. The full simulation workflow lives in the hydraulic fracturing software.