The Impact of Stress on Propped Fracture Conductivity and Gas Recovery in Marcellus Shale

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El sgher ◽  
Kashy Aminian ◽  
Samuel Ameri
Keyword(s):  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
The Impact

Impact of the Cluster Spacing on Hydraulic Fracture Conductivity and Productivity of a Marcellus Shale Horizontal Well

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El Sgher ◽  
Kashy Aminian ◽  
Ameri Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracture ◽  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Fracture Properties ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the hydraulic fracturing treatment design, including cluster spacing and fracturing fluid volume on the hydraulic fracture properties and consequently, the productivity of a horizontal Marcellus Shale well with multi-stage fractures. The availability of a significant amount of advanced technical information from the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory (MSEEL) provided an opportunity to perform an integrated analysis to gain valuable insight into optimizing fracturing treatment and the gas recovery from Marcellus shale. The available technical information from a horizontal well at MSEEL includes well logs, image logs (both vertical and lateral), diagnostic fracture injection test (DFIT), fracturing treatment data, microseismic recording during the fracturing treatment, production logging data, and production data. The analysis of core data, image logs, and DFIT provided the necessary data for accurate prediction of the hydraulic fracture properties and confirmed the presence and distribution of natural fractures (fissures) in the formation. Furthermore, the results of the microseismic interpretation were utilized to adjust the stress conditions in the adjacent layers. The predicted hydraulic fracture properties were then imported into a reservoir simulation model, developed based on the Marcellus Shale properties, to predict the production performance of the well. Marcellus Shale properties, including porosity, permeability, adsorption characteristics, were obtained from the measurements on the core plugs and the well log data. The Quanta Geo borehole image log from the lateral section of the well was utilized to estimate the fissure distribution s in the shale. The measured and published data were utilized to develop the geomechnical factors to account for the hydraulic fracture conductivity and the formation (matrix and fissure) permeability impairments caused by the reservoir pressure depletion during the production. Stress shadowing and the geomechanical factors were found to play major roles in production performance. Their inclusion in the reservoir model provided a close agreement with the actual production performance of the well. The impact of stress shadowing is significant for Marcellus shale because of the low in-situ stress contrast between the pay zone and the adjacent zones. Stress shadowing appears to have a significant impact on hydraulic fracture properties and as result on the production during the early stages. The geomechanical factors, caused by the net stress changes have a more significant impact on the production during later stages. The cumulative gas production was found to increase as the cluster spacing was decreased (larger number of clusters). At the same time, the stress shadowing caused by the closer cluster spacing resulted in a lower fracture conductivity which in turn diminished the increase in gas production. However, the total fracture volume has more of an impact than the fracture conductivity on gas recovery. The analysis provided valuable insight for optimizing the cluster spacing and the gas recovery from Marcellus shale.

The Impact of the Net Stress on Gas Recovery from the Marcellus Shale

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El Sgher ◽  
Kashy Aminian ◽  
Samuel Ameri
Keyword(s):  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
The Impact

The Impact of the Net Stress on Gas Recovery from the Marcellus Shale

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed El Sgher ◽  
Kashy Aminian ◽  
Samuel Ameri
Keyword(s):  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Investigation of the Main Factors During Shale-gas Production Using Grey Relational Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongling Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Haiyong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Matrix Permeability ◽  
Shale Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Grey Relational ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Half Length

Shale gas is one of the primary types of unconventional reservoirs to be exploited in search for long-lasting resources. Production from shale gas reservoirs requires horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing to achieve the most economic production. However, plenty of parameters (e.g., fracture conductivity, fracture spacing, half-length, matrix permeability, and porosity,etc) have high uncertainty that may cause unexpected high cost. Therefore, to develop an efficient and practical method for quantifying uncertainty and optimizing shale-gas production is highly desirable. This paper focuses on analyzing the main factors during gas production, including petro-physical parameters, hydraulic fracture parameters, and work conditions on shale-gas production performances. Firstly, numerous key parameters of shale-gas production from the fourteen best-known shale gas reservoirs in the United States are selected through the correlation analysis. Secondly, a grey relational grade method is used to quantitatively estimate the potential of developing target shale gas reservoirs as well as the impact ranking of these factors. Analyses on production data of many shale-gas reservoirs indicate that the recovery efficiencies are highly correlated with the major parameters predicted by the new method. Among all main factors, the impact ranking of major factors, from more important to less important, is matrix permeability, fracture conductivity, fracture density of hydraulic fracturing, reservoir pressure, total organic content (TOC), fracture half-length, adsorbed gas, reservoir thickness, reservoir depth, and clay content. This work can provide significant insights into quantifying the evaluation of the development potential of shale gas reservoirs, the influence degree of main factors, and optimization of shale gas production.

Marcellus Shale Gas Boom and Forestry Employment: Evidence from West Virginia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A Gazal ◽  
Kathleen G Arano
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
Adverse Impact ◽  
Relative Wage ◽  
Forestry Sector ◽  
Movement Effect ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Advancement in drilling technology has increased natural gas extraction activities from the Marcellus shale deposit resulting in a shale gas boom in many regions, including West Virginia. This boom has created a significant labor demand shock to local economies experiencing the boom. A number of studies have shown that a shale gas boom directly increases employment and the income of those working in the industry. However, the boom can also have an adverse impact on other sectors through the resource movement effect and intersector labor mobility, pulling workers away from a related sector like forestry. Thus, an econometric model of employment in the forestry sector was developed to investigate the impact of the Marcellus shale gas boom in West Virginia. There is evidence of a labor movement effect with forestry employment negatively affected by the Marcellus shale boom. Specifically, the overall marginal effect of the shale boom on forestry employment is approximately 435 fewer jobs. However, the extent of the decline is slightly moderated by a higher relative wage between gas and forestry, perhaps suggesting diminishing returns and overall slack in the local labor market. Study Implications Although a Marcellus shale gas boom directly increases employment and the income of those working in that industry, it can have an adverse impact on other sectors by pulling workers away from a related sector like forestry. This study showed that employment in the West Virginia forestry sector was negatively affected by the shale gas boom. An important policy issue is how to manage the cyclical nature of shale gas booms and the negative impacts on other industries with long-term growth potential, like the forestry sector. This sector does not suffer through boom-and-bust cycles, making it important for long-term economic stability.

Application Investigation of Light Proppant in Hydraulic Fracturing of Marcellus Shale

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aymen Alhemdi ◽  
Ming Gu
Keyword(s):  
History Matching ◽  
Marcellus Shale ◽  
In Situ Stress ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Well Performance ◽  
Fracture Permeability ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Stimulated Reservoir Volume ◽  
Conductivity Distribution ◽  
Cumulative Production

Abstract Slickwater-sand fracturing design is widely employed in Marcellus shale. The slickwater- sand creates long skinny fractures and maximizes the stimulated reservoir volume (SRV). However, due to the fast settling of sand in the water, lots of upper and deeper areas are not sufficiently propped. Reducing sand size can lead to insufficient fracture conductivity. This study proposes to use three candidate ultra-lightweight proppants ULWPs to enhance the fractured well performance in unconventional reservoirs. In step 1, the current sand pumping design is input into an in-house P3D fracture propagation simulator to estimate the fracture geometry and proppant concentrations. Next, the distribution of proppant concentration converts to conductivity and then to fracture permeability. In the third step, the fracture permeability from the second step is input into a reservoir simulator to predict the cumulative production for history matching and calibration. In step 4, the three ULWPs are used to replace the sand in the frac simulator to get new frac geometry and conductivity distribution and then import them in reservoir model for production evaluation. Before this study, the three ULWPs have already been tested in the lab to obtain their long-term conductivities under in-situ stress conditions. The conductivity distribution and production performance are analyzed and investigated. The induced fracture size and location of the produced layer for the current target well play a fundamental effect on ultra-light proppant productivity. The average conductivity of ULWPs with mesh 40/70 is larger and symmetric along the fracture except for a few places. However, ULWPs with mesh 100 generates low average conductivity and create a peak conductivity in limited areas. The ULW-3 tends to have less cumulative production compared with the other ULWPs. For this Marcellus Shale study, the advantages of ultra-lightweight proppant are restricted and reduced because the upward fracture height growth is enormous. And with the presence of the hydrocarbon layer is at the bottom of the fracture, making a large proportion of ULWPs occupies areas that are not productive places. The current study provides a guidance for operators in Marcellus Shale to determine (1) If the ULWP can benefit the current shale well treated by sand, (2) what type of ULWP should be used, and (3) given a certain type of ULWP, what is the optimum pumping schedule and staging/perforating design to maximize the well productivity. The similar workflow can be expanded to evaluate the economic potential of different ULWPs in any other unconventional field.

Quantifying the impact of capillary trapping on coal seam gas recovery

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 103588
Author(s):  
Yiran Zhu ◽  
Huilin Xing ◽  
Victor Rudolph ◽  
Zhongwei Chen
Keyword(s):  
Coal Seam ◽  
Coal Seam Gas ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
Capillary Trapping ◽  
The Impact
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