A Reservoir Simulation Study of Naturally Fractured Lenticular Tight Gas Sand Reservoirs

1990 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Evans ◽  
S. D. L. Lekia

The results of parametric studies of two naturally fractured lenticular tight gas reservoirs, Fluvial E-1 and Puludal Zones 3 and 4, of the U.S. Department of Energy Multi-Well Experiment (MWX) site of Northwestern Colorado are presented and discussed. The three-dimensional, two-phase, black oil reservoir simulator that was developed in a previous phase of this research program is also discussed and the capabilities further explored by applying it to several example problems. The simulation studies lead to the conclusion that 1) at early times the reservoir performance does not depend on lenticularity; 2) the initial reservoir performance does not depend on natural fracture concentration, although at later times the performance predictions of systems with lower natural fracture concentrations begin to fall below the ones with higher concentrations; 3) porosity change with time and pressure leads to double performance prediction reversals when comparing gas flow rates and cumulative gas production from naturally fractured and non-naturally fractured tight gas reservoirs; 4) the assumption of zero capillary pressure in the fractures can lead to erroneous predictions in the simulation of naturally fractured tight gas reservoir performance; and 5) the simulator developed in a prior phase of this project is capable of handling a reservoir block that is blanket sand, lenticular, completely fractured, partially fractured or completely unfractured and is amenable to an anisotropic heterogeneous reservoir whether the reservoir is fractured or not.

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 559
Author(s):  
Hassan Bahrami ◽  
M Reza Rezaee ◽  
Vamegh Rasouli ◽  
Armin Hosseinian

Tight gas reservoirs normally have production problems due to very low matrix permeability and significant damage during well drilling, completion, stimulation and production. Therefore they might not flow gas to surface at optimum rates without advanced production improvement techniques. After well stimulation and fracturing operations, invaded liquids such as filtrate will flow from the reservoir into the wellbore, as gas is produced during well cleanup. In addition, there might be production of condensate with gas. The produced liquids when loaded and re-circulated downhole in wellbores, can significantly reduce the gas production rate and well productivity in tight gas formations. This paper presents assessments of tight gas reservoir productivity issues related to liquid loading in wellbores using numerical simulation of multiphase flow in deviated and horizontal wells. A field example of production logging in a horizontal well is used to verify reliability of the numerical simulation model outputs. Well production performance modelling is also performed to quantitatively evaluate water loading in a typical tight gas well, and test the water unloading techniques that can improve the well productivity. The results indicate the effect of downhole liquid loading on well productivity in tight gas reservoirs. It also shows how well cleanup is sped up with the improved well productivity when downhole circulating liquids are lifted using the proposed methods.


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rahman ◽  
Sheik Rahman

This paper investigates the interaction of an induced hydraulic fracture in the presence of a natural fracture and the subsequent propagation of this induced fracture. The developed, fully coupled finite element model integrates a wellbore, an induced hydraulic fracture, a natural fracture, and a reservoir that simulates interaction between the induced and natural fracture. The results of this study have shown that natural fractures can have a profound effect on induced fracture propagation. In most cases, the induced fracture crosses the natural fracture at high angles of approach and high differential stress. At low angles of approach and low differential stress, the induced fracture is more likely to be arrested and/or break out from the far-end side of the natural fracture. It has also been observed that the propagation of the induced fracture is stopped by a large natural fracture at a high angle of approach, when the injection rate remains low. At a low angle of approach, the induced fracture deviates and propagates along the natural fracture. Crossing of the natural fracture and/or arrest by the natural fracture is controlled by the shear strength of the natural fracture, natural fracture orientation, and the in situ stress state of the reservoir. In tight-gas reservoir development, the optimum well spacing and induced hydraulic fracture length are correlated. Therefore, fracturing design should be performed during the initial reservoir development planning phase along with the well spacing design to obtain an optimal depletion strategy. This model has a potential application in the design and optimisation of fracturing design in unconventional reservoirs including tight-gas reservoirs and enhanced geothermal systems.


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Andrews ◽  
Hassan Bahrami ◽  
Reza Rezaee ◽  
Hamid Reza ◽  
Sultan Mehmood ◽  
...  

Wireline formation testing and measurement of true formation pressure can provide essential knowledge about the reservoir dynamic characteristics. In tight formations, a reliable determination of pressure and mobility gradients is challenging because of the tight nature of formation rock. Due to the very low reservoir permeability, the mud cake across wellbore is often ineffective in preventing filtrate invasion, thus causing the measured pressure to be higher than actual formation pressure as a result of supercharging effect. Wireline formation testing measurements are also influenced by the effects of filtrate invasion and capillary pressure, as the measured pressure is pressure of drilling fluid filtrate, the continuous phase present in the invaded region around wellbore. As a result, the measured pressure might be different to true formation pressure. This effect is more noticeable in tight gas reservoirs due to capillary pressure effect. This paper looks into estimation of true formation pressure and evaluates the effect of filtrate invasion damage and supercharging on wireline formation tester measurements in tight gas reservoirs. Numerical simulation approach is used to build the reservoir model based on data acquired from a tight gas reservoir. The model undergoes water injection followed by gas production from different testing points along the wellbore, and the corresponding pressure gradients are plotted to check for pressure matching with that of the formation fluid in the virgin region. The results indicate the significant effects of supercharging, reservoir characteristics, capillary pressure and liquid invasion damage on wireline formation pressure measurements in tight gas reservoirs.


2011 ◽  
Vol 201-203 ◽  
pp. 399-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Qing Song ◽  
Ming Yue ◽  
Wei Yao Zhu ◽  
Dong Bo He ◽  
Huai Jian Yi

Porous media containing water is the prerequisite of existence of threshold pressure gradient (TPG) for gas flow. Based on theory of fluid mechanics in porous medium considering TPG, the non-Darcy flow mathematical model is established for formation pressure analysis of water-bearing tight gas reservoirs. It could provide semi-analytic solution of unsteady radial non-Darcy flow. According to the solution of unsteady radial non-Darcy flow, an easy and accurate calculation method for formation pressure analysis is presented. It can provide theoretical foundation for development design of water-bearing tight gas reservoirs. The analysis of calculation results demonstrates that the higher TPG is, the smaller formation pressure of water-bearing tight gas reservoirs spreads. In the same output, the reservoir sweep of non-Darcy gas flow is larger than that of non-Darcy liquid flow. And the pressure drop near wellbore is smaller than that of non-Darcy liquid flow, which is different from Darcy flow.


Author(s):  
Zhaozhong Yang ◽  
Rui He ◽  
Xiaogang Li ◽  
Zhanling Li ◽  
Ziyuan Liu

The tight sandstone gas reservoir in southern Songliao Basin is naturally fractured and is characterized by its low porosity and permeability. Large-scale hydraulic fracturing is the most effective way to develop this tight gas reservoir. Quantitative evaluation of fracability is essential for optimizing a fracturing reservoir. In this study, as many as ten fracability-related factors, particularly mechanical brittleness, mineral brittleness, cohesion, internal friction angle, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), natural fracture, Model-I toughness, Model-II toughness, horizontal stress difference, and fracture barrier were obtained from a series of petrophysical and geomechanical experiments are analyzed. Taking these influencing factors into consideration, a modified comprehensive evaluation model is proposed based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Both a transfer matrix and a fuzzy matrix were introduced into this model. The fracability evaluation of four reservoir intervals in Jinshan gas field was analyzed. Field fracturing tests were conducted to verify the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed evaluation model. Results showed that gas production is higher and more stable in the reservoir interval with better fracability. The field test data coincides with the results of the proposed evaluation model.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 1667-1683
Author(s):  
Fei Mo ◽  
Zhimin Du ◽  
Xiaolong Peng ◽  
Baosheng Liang ◽  
Yong Tang ◽  
...  

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