Impact of Proppant Pumping Schedule on Well Production for Slickwater Fracturing

SPE Journal ◽  
1900 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Shaowen Mao ◽  
Prashanth Siddhamshetty ◽  
Zhuo Zhang ◽  
Wei Yu ◽  
Troy Chun ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reservoir Simulation ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Median Percentage ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Proppant Transport ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Pumping Schedules ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Slickwater Fracturing

Summary Slickwater fracturing has become one of the most leveraging completion technologies in unlocking hydrocarbon in unconventional reservoirs. In slickwater treatments, proppant transport becomes a big concern because of the inefficiency of low-viscosity fluids to suspend the particles. Many studies have been devoted to proppant transport experimentally and numerically. However, only a few focused on the proppant pumping schedules in slickwater fracturing. The impact of proppant schedules on well production remains unclear. The goal of our work is to simulate the proppant transport under real pumping schedules (multisize proppants and varying concentration) at the field scale and quantitatively evaluate the effects of proppant schedules on well production for slickwater fracturing. The workflow consists of three steps. First, a validated 3D multiphase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) model has been used to simulate the proppant transport at real pumping schedules in a field-scale fracture (180-m length, 30-m height). Second, we applied a propped fracture conductivity model to calculate the distribution of propped fracture width, permeability, and fracture conductivity. In the last step, we incorporated the fracture geometry, propped fracture conductivity, and the estimated unpropped fracture conductivity into a reservoir simulation model to predict gas production. Based on the field designs of pumping schedules in slickwater treatments, we have generated four proppant schedules, in which 100-mesh and 40/70-mesh proppants were loaded successively with stair-stepped and incremental stages. The first three were used to study the effects of the mass percentages of the multisize proppants. From Schedules 1 through 3, the mass percentage of 100-mesh proppants is 30, 50, and 70%, respectively. Schedule 4 has the same proppant percentage as Schedule 2 but has a flush stage after slurry injection. The comparison between Schedules 2 and 4 enables us to evaluate the effect of the flush stage on well production. The results indicate that the proppant schedule has a significant influence on treatment performance. The schedule with a higher percentage of 100-mesh proppants has a longer proppant transport distance, a larger propped fracture area, but a lower propped fracture conductivity. Then, the reservoir simulation results show that both the small and large percentages of 100-mesh proppants cannot maximize well production because of the corresponding small propped area and low propped fracture conductivity. Schedule 2, with a median percentage (50%) of 100-mesh proppants, has the highest 1,000-day cumulative gas production. For Schedule 4, the flush stage significantly benefits the gas production by 8.2% because of a longer and more uniform proppant bed along the fracture. In this paper, for the first time, we provide both the qualitative explanation and quantitative evaluation for the impact of proppant pumping schedules on the performance of slickwater treatments at the field scale by using an integrated numerical simulation workflow, providing crucial insights for the design of proppant schedules in the field slickwater treatments.

scholarly journals Multi-Size Proppant Pumping Schedule of Hydraulic Fracturing: Application to a MP-PIC Model of Unconventional Reservoir for Enhanced Gas Production

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prashanth Siddhamshetty ◽  
Shaowen Mao ◽  
Kan Wu ◽  
Joseph Sang-Il Kwon
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Fracture Geometry ◽  
Fracture Conductivity ◽  
Proppant Transport

Slickwater hydraulic fracturing is becoming a prevalent approach to economically recovering shale hydrocarbon. It is very important to understand the proppant’s transport behavior during slickwater hydraulic fracturing treatment for effective creation of a desired propped fracture geometry. The currently available models are either oversimplified or have been performed at limited length scales to avoid high computational requirements. Another limitation is that the currently available hydraulic fracturing simulators are developed using only single-sized proppant particles. Motivated by this, in this work, a computationally efficient, three-dimensional, multiphase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) model was employed to simulate the multi-size proppant transport in a field-scale geometry using the Eulerian–Lagrangian framework. Instead of tracking each particle, groups of particles (called parcels) are tracked, which allows one to simulate the proppant transport in field-scale geometries at an affordable computational cost. Then, we found from our sensitivity study that pumping schedules significantly affect propped fracture surface area and average fracture conductivity, thereby influencing shale gas production. Motivated by these results, we propose an optimization framework using the MP-PIC model to design the multi-size proppant pumping schedule that maximizes shale gas production from unconventional reservoirs for given fracturing resources.

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.

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.

The impact of kerogen properties on shale gas production: A reservoir simulation sensitivity analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 13-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihao Wang ◽  
Andrew E. Pomerantz ◽  
Wenyue Xu ◽  
Alexander Lukyanov ◽  
Robert L. Kleinberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Shale Gas ◽  
Reservoir Simulation ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
The Impact

Optimizing Tubing and Liner Completion Design to Improve Gas Production from Existing Wells: Case Study for ADNOC Onshore Field Abu Dhabi, UAE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdy Farouk Fathalla ◽  
Mariam Ahmed Al Hosani ◽  
Ihab Nabil Mohamed ◽  
Ahmed Mohamed Al Bairaq ◽  
Djamal Kherroubi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Production ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Gas Wells ◽  
Production Rates ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Well Completion ◽  
The Impact

Abstract An onshore gas field contains several gas wells which have low–intermittent production rates. The poor production has been attributed to liquid loading issue in the wellbore. This study will investigate the impact of optimizing the tubing and liner completion design to improve the gas production rates from the wells. Numerous sensitivity runs are carried out with varying tubing and liner dimensions, to identity optimal downhole completions design. The study begins by identifying weak wells having severe gas production problems. Once the weak wells have been identified, wellbore schematics for those wells are studied. Simulation runs are performed with the current downhole completion design and this will be used as the base case. Several completion designs are considered to minimize the effect of liquid loading in the wells; these include reducing the tubing diameter but keeping the existing liner diameter the same, keeping the original tubing diameter the same but only reducing the liner diameter, extending the tubing to the Total Depth (TD) while keeping the original tubing diameter, and extending a reduced diameter tubing string to the TD. The primary cause of the liquid loading seems to be the reduced velocity of the incoming gas from the reservoir as it flows through the wellbore. A simulation study was performed using the various completion designs to optimize the well completion and achieve higher gas velocities in the weak wells. The results of the study showed significant improvement in gas production rates when the tubing diameter and liner diameter were reduced, providing further evidence that increased velocity of the incoming fluids due to restricted flow led to less liquid loading. The paper demonstrates the impact of downhole completion design on the productivity of the gas wells. The study shows that revisiting the existing completion designs and optimizing them using commercial simulators can lead to significant improvement in well production rates. It is also noted that restricting the flow near the sand face increases the velocity of the incoming fluid and reduces liquid loading in the wells.

Key Factors in Shale Gas Modeling and Simulation

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Klimkowski ◽  
Stanisław Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Hydraulic Fractures ◽  
Well Performance ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Gas Well ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Multi-stage hydraulic fracturing is the method for unlocking shale gas resources and maximizing horizontal well performance. Modeling the effects of stimulation and fluid flow in a medium with extremely low permeability is significantly different from modeling conventional deposits. Due to the complexity of the subject, a significant number of parameters can affect the production performance. For a better understanding of the specifics of unconventional resources it is necessary to determine the effect of various parameters on the gas production process and identification of parameters of major importance. As a result, it may help in designing more effective way to provide gas resources from shale rocks. Within the framework of this study a sensitivity analysis of the numerical model of shale gas reservoir, built based on the latest solutions used in industrial reservoir simulators, was performed. The impact of different reservoir and hydraulic fractures parameters on a horizontal shale gas well production performance was assessed and key factors were determined.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Geometry of the Effective Propped Volume on the Economic Performance of Shale Gas Well Production

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2475
Author(s):  
Andres Soage ◽  
Ruben Juanes ◽  
Ignasi Colominas ◽  
Luis Cueto-Felgueroso
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Gas Flow ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Decline Curves ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Impact

We analyze the effect that the geometry of the Effective Propped Volume (EPV) has on the economic performance of hydrofractured multistage shale gas wells. We study the sensitivity of gas production to the EPV’s geometry and we compare it with the sensitivity to other parameters whose relevance in the production of shale gas is well known: porosity, kerogen content and permeability induced in the Stimulated Recovery Volume (SRV). To understand these sensitivities, we develop a high-fidelity 3D numerical model of shale gas flow that allows determining both the Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) of gas as well as analyzing the decline curves of gas production (DCA). We find that the geometry of the EPV plays an important role in the economic performance and gas production of shale wells. The relative contribution of EPV geometry is comparable to that of induced permeability of the SRV or formation porosity. Our results may lead to interesting technological developments in the oild and gas industry that improve economic efficiency in shale gas production.

scholarly journals Condensate-Banking Removal and Gas-Production Enhancement Using Thermochemical Injection: A Field-Scale Simulation

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 727 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amjed Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Abdalla ◽  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Guenther Glatz ◽  
Abdulaziz Al-Majed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Injection ◽  
Thermochemical Treatment ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Gas Reservoirs ◽  
Gas Recovery ◽  
Compositional Simulator ◽  
The Impact

Condensate-liquid accumulation in the vicinity of a well is known to curtail gas production up to 80%. Numerous approaches are employed to mitigate condensate banking and improve gas productivity. In this work, a field-scale simulation is presented for condensate damage removal in tight reservoirs using a thermochemical treatment strategy where heat and pressure are generated in situ. The impact of thermochemical injection on the gas recovery is also elucidated. A compositional simulator was utilized to assess the effectiveness of the suggested treatment on reducing the condensate damage and, thereby, improve the gas recovery. Compared to the base case, represented by an industry-standard gas injection strategy, simulation studies suggest a significantly improved hydrocarbon recovery performance upon thermochemical treatment of the near-wellbore zone. For the scenarios investigated, the application of thermochemicals allowed for an extension of the production plateau from 104 days, as determined for the reference gas injection case, to 683 days. This represents a 6.5-fold increase in production plateau time, boosting gas recovery from 25 to 89%. The improved recovery is attributed to the reduction of both capillary pressure and condensate viscosity. The presented work is crucial for designing and implementing thermochemical treatments in tight-gas reservoirs.

Geomechanical Responses During Gas Hydrate Production Induced by Depressurization

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ah-Ram Kim ◽  
Gye-Chun Cho ◽  
Joo-Yong Lee ◽  
Se-Joon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Methane Hydrate ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Production Well ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Hydrate Dissociation ◽  
Thermal Changes ◽  
New Energy ◽  
Hydrate Bearing Sediments

Methane hydrate has been received large attention as a new energy source instead of oil and fossil fuel. However, there is high potential for geomechanical stability problems such as marine landslides, seafloor subsidence, and large volume contraction in the hydrate-bearing sediment during gas production induced by depressurization. In this study, a thermal-hydraulic-mechanical coupled numerical analysis is conducted to simulate methane gas production from the hydrate deposits in the Ulleung basin, East Sea, Korea. The field-scale axisymmetric model incorporates the physical processes of hydrate dissociation, pore fluid flow, thermal changes (i.e., latent heat, conduction and advection), and geomechanical behaviors of the hydrate-bearing sediment. During depressurization, deformation of sediments around the production well is generated by the effective stress transformed from the pore pressure difference in the depressurized region. This tendency becomes more pronounced due to the stiffness decrease of hydrate-bearing sediments which is caused by hydrate dissociation.

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