A novel analytical model of initial fracture pressure for horizontal staged fracturing in fractured reservoir

Abstract

The horizontal well-staged fracturing technology has been widely used in many oilfields to enhance well production by creating fracture network. Accurate prediction of fracture initiation is significant for successful hydraulic fracturing operation. However, hydraulic fracture initiation in fractured reservoir is highly tricky due to its rich natural fractures and artificial fractures previously created during staged fracturing. These fractures are thought to be major factors in conducting efficient staged fracturing in fractured reservoir. Therefore, in this paper, induced stress from artificial fractures has been analyzed by using two-dimensional analytical model. Besides, based on the assumption that rock in the formation is composed by rock matrix and fracture plane, considering tensile and shear failure type, failure criterion with multiple natural fracture planes has been developed. By combining impacts from natural fractures and artificial fractures, we establish an analytical model to calculate initial fracture pressure for horizontal staged fracturing in fractured reservoir. These results demonstrate that induced stress is associated with artificial fractures' location, height, and number. This induced stress leads to increment of initial fracture pressure, restricting fracture initiation. Due to natural fractures, there are three types of initiation, which are tensile failure along rock matrix, tensile failure along natural fracture, and shear failure along natural fracture plane. When rock failure is related to natural fracture, initial fracture pressure decreases and is variable with natural fracture plane occurrence. Especially, with large number of natural fractures, only one initiation type exists, which is tensile failure along natural fracture. Additionally, for horizontal borehole, influencing extent of fracture planes is associated with wellbore trajectory. The case study proves the applicability of this analytical model, meaning it can be used to guide horizontal staged fracturing in oilfield. K E Y W O R D Sartificial fracture, fracture initiation, fractured reservoir, natural fractures, staged fracturing

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