scholarly journals An Analytical Flow Model for Heterogeneous Multi-Fractured Systems in Shale Gas Reservoirs

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Honghua Tao ◽  
Liehui Zhang ◽  
Qiguo Liu ◽  
Qi Deng ◽  
Man Luo ◽  
...  

The use of multiple hydraulically fractured horizontal wells has been proven to be an efficient and effective way to enable shale gas production. Meanwhile, analytical models represent a rapid evaluation method that has been developed to investigate the pressure-transient behaviors in shale gas reservoirs. Furthermore, fractal-anomalous diffusion, which describes a sub-diffusion process by a non-linear relationship with time and cannot be represented by Darcy’s law, has been noticed in heterogeneous porous media. In order to describe the pressure-transient behaviors in shale gas reservoirs more accurately, an improved analytical model based on the fractal-anomalous diffusion is established. Various diffusions in the shale matrix, pressure-dependent permeability, fractal geometry features, and anomalous diffusion in the stimulated reservoir volume region are considered. Type curves of pressure and pressure derivatives are plotted, and the effects of anomalous diffusion and mass fractal dimension are investigated in a sensitivity analysis. The impact of anomalous diffusion is recognized as two opposite aspects in the early linear flow regime and after that period, when it changes from 1 to 0.75. The smaller mass fractal dimension, which changes from 2 to 1.8, results in more pressure and a drop in the pressure derivative.

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongling Zhang ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Haiyong Zhang

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1497-1510
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Ahmed Aleid ◽  
Abdulwahab Ali ◽  
Muhammad Shahzad Kamal

AbstractThe main objectives of this paper are to assess the long-term and short-term production based on both reservoir parameters and completion parameters of shale gas reservoirs. The effects of the reservoir parameters (permeability and the initial reservoir pressure) and completion parameters (fracture geometry, stimulated reservoir volume, etc.) on the short-term and long-term production of shale gas reservoirs were investigated. The currently used approach relies mainly on the decline curve analysis or analogs from a similar shale play to forecast the gas production from shale gas reservoirs. Both these approaches are not satisfactory because they are calibrated on short production history and do not assess the impact of uncertainty in reservoir and well data. For the first time, this study integrates initial production analysis, probabilistic evaluation, and sensitivity analysis to develop a robust workflow that will help in designing a sustainable production from shale gas plays. The reservoir and completion parameters were collected from different available resources, and the probability distributions of gathered uncertain data were defined. Then analytical models were used to forecast the production. Two well evaluation results are presented in this paper. Based on the results, completion parameters affected the short-term and long-term production, while the reservoir parameters controlled the long-term production. Long-term well performance was mainly controlled by the fracture half-length and fracture height, whereas other completion and reservoir parameters have an insignificant effect. Stimulation treatment design defines the initial well performance, while well placement decision defines well long-term performance. The findings of this study would help in better understanding the production performance of shale gas reservoirs, maximizing production by selecting effective completion parameters and considering the governing reservoir parameters. Moreover, it would help in accomplishing more effective stimulation treatments and define the potentiality of the basin.


Author(s):  
Abdul Majeed Shar ◽  
Waheed Ali Abro ◽  
Aftab Ahmed Mahesar ◽  
Kun Sang Lee

The production from shale gas reservoirs has significantly increased due to technological advancements. The shale gas reservoirs are very heterogeneous and the heterogeneity has a significant effect on the quality and productivity of reservoirs. Hence, it is essential to study the behavior of such reservoirs for accurate modelling and performance prediction. To evaluate the impact of fracture parameters on shale gas reservoir productivity using CMG (Computer Modelling Group) stars simulation software was the main objective of this study. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis considering an example shale gas reservoir was conducted for production performance analysis considering uniform and non-uniform fractures configurations. Several simulations were performed by considering the multi-stage hydraulically fractured reservoir. The sensitivities conducted includes the different cases of moderate and severe heterogeneity along with variable fractures half-length, effect of changing fracture spacing, variable fracture conductivities. The simulation results showed that by increasing conductivity of fracture increases the gas production rate significantly. Moreover, cases of reservoir permeability heterogeneity were analyzed which show the significant effect on gas rate and on cumulative gas production. The results of this study can be used to improve the effectiveness in designing and developing of shale gas reservoirs and also to improve the accuracy of analyzing heterogeneous shale gas reservoir performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (08) ◽  
pp. 67-68
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 201694, “Interwell Fracturing Interference Evaluation of Multiwell Pads in Shale Gas Reservoirs: A Case Study in WY Basin,” by Youwei He, SPE, Jianchun Guo, SPE, and Yong Tang, Southwest Petroleum University, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, originally scheduled to be held in Denver, Colorado, 5–7 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The paper aims to determine the mechanisms of fracturing interference for multiwell pads in shale gas reservoirs and evaluate the effect of interwell fracturing interference on production. Field data of 56 shale gas wells in the WY Basin are applied to calculate the ratio of affected wells to newly fractured wells and understand its influence on gas production. The main controlling factors of fracturing interference are determined, and the interwell fracturing interacting types are presented. Production recovery potential for affected wells is analyzed, and suggestions for mitigating fracturing interference are proposed. Interwell Fracturing Interference Evaluation The WY shale play is in the southwest region of the Sichuan Basin, where shale gas reserves in the Wufeng-Longmaxi formation are estimated to be the highest in China. The reservoir has produced hydrocarbons since 2016. Infill well drilling and massive hydraulic fracturing operations have been applied in the basin. Each well pad usually is composed of six to eight multifractured horizontal wells (MFHWs). Well spacing within one pad, or the distance between adjacent well pads, is so small that fracture interference can occur easily between infill wells and parent wells. Fig. 1 shows the number of wells affected by in-fill well fracturing from 2016 to 2019 in the basin. As the number of newly drilled wells increased between 2017 and 2019, the number of wells affected by hydraulic fracturing has greatly increased. The number of wells experiencing fracturing interaction has reached 65 in the last 4 years at the time of writing.


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