Explicit Simulation of Multiple Hydraulic Fractures in Horizontal Wells

Sadrpanah, Hooman; Charles, Thierry; Fulton, Jonathan

doi:10.2118/99575-ms

Cited by 24 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…The number of the fractures should be optimized because of the high cost of fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is an expensive method, but it can help substantially increase production (Sadrpanah et al 2006). Taken into account that the cost of a 1,000 ft long fracture half-length can be USD 175,000 (Schweitzer and Bilgesu 2009), several parameters of the horizontal well as well as the transverse fracture should be optimized for each tight gas sand reservoir type, such as the half-length of the fracture, conductivity of the transverse fracture, and the number of fractures.…”

Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of Production in Slanted Horizontal Wells in Tight Reservoirs

Temizel¹,

Purwar

Abdullayev

et al. 2015

Day 2 Tue, September 15, 2015

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Economic production from tight-oil formations requires the same hydraulic fracturing techniques used during production of shale gas, and the same horizontal well technology is often used. Tight-oil formations are heterogeneous and greatly vary over relatively short distances. Thus, even in a single horizontal drilled hole, the amount recovered can vary, just as recovery within a field or even between adjacent wells can vary. This can make evaluation and decisions regarding profitability difficult. In relatively thinner pay zones, horizontal or slanted wells can be successful in terms of productivity as long as robust reservoir management is applied with well designs that consider both geology and operational control variables. Thus, it is crucial to understand every control and uncertainty parameter to help maximize efficiency and recovery within such systems.Robust commercial optimization and uncertainty software is coupled with a full-physics commercial simulator that models this phenomenon to investigate the significance of major parameters on the performance of horizontal wells in tight-oil formations.Slanted wells provide more flexibility and access to pays than vertical wells drilled from the same surface location, which is of more significance in tight formations because of less communication between zones. The results of the study not only confirm this, but also show the increased value provided using slanted wells compared to vertical wells in tight formations. The study also illustrates the significance of each optimization and uncertainty variable in terms of the success of recovery from slanted horizontal wells in tight formations.The results and sensitivities are compared and discussed considering a comprehensive literature review of recycling gas-condensate reservoirs using different process optimization methods. The significance of all major parameters is outlined using tornado charts to serve as a practical example for optimization of similar future applications. Vertical, Slanted and Horizontal WellsThe technology for drilling horizontal wells to increase reservoir drainage areas has been used for many years. As directional drilling technology has advanced, the cost of drilling directional wells has been reduced, and the accuracy of drilling has been significantly improved.

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Section: Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of Production in Slanted Horizontal Wells in Tight Reservoirs

Temizel¹,

Purwar

Abdullayev

et al. 2015

Day 2 Tue, September 15, 2015

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“…Simulations with explicitly discretized fractures with very-fine gridblocks as fracture width with a single-porosity approach can give us a very-accurate flow modeling into and from fractures, especially for two-phase flow problems. Advanced numerical methods are also studied in the literature to improve discrete fracture modeling for multiphase/ multicomponent flows (e.g., Geiger et al 2009;Schmid et al 2013;Zidane and Firoozabadi 2014). However, an explicitly discrete fracture model (DFM) involves a large number of cells which are not suitable for reservoir-scale simulations because of the computational intensity.…”

Section: Hybrid Approach Based On the Minc Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of the Impact of Fracturing Fluid Induced Formation Damage in Shale Gas Reservoirs

Farah

Ding

2015

SPE Reservoir Simulation Symposium

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The unconventional gas resources from tight and shale gas reservoirs have received great attention in the past decade and have become the focus of petroleum industry. Shale gas reservoirs have specific characteristics, such as tight reservoir rock with nanodarcy permeability. Multistage hydraulic fracturing is required for such low-permeability reservoirs to create very complex fracture networks and therefore to connect effectively a huge reservoir volume to the wellbore. During hydraulic fracturing, an enormous amount of water is injected into the formation, where only 25-60% is reproduced during flowback and a long production period. A major concern with hydraulic fracturing is the waterblocking effect in tight formations caused by the high capillary pressure and the presence of water-sensitive clays. High water saturation in the invaded zone near the fracture face may reduce gas relative permeability greatly and may impede gas production. In this paper, we consider the numerical techniques to simulate during hydraulic fracturing the water invasion or formation damage and its impact on the gas production in shale gas reservoirs. Two-phase-flow simulations are considered in a large stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) containing extremely low-permeability tight matrix and multiscale fracture networks including primary hydraulic fractures, induced secondary fractures, and natural fractures. To simulate the water-blocking phenomenon, it is usually required to explicitly discretize the fracture network and use very fine meshes around the fractures. On the one hand, the commonly used single-porosity model is not suitable for this kind of problem, because a large number of gridblocks is required to simulate the fracture network and fracture-matrix interaction. On the other hand, a dual-porosity (DP) model may also be not applicable, because of the long transient duration with large block sizes of ultralow-permeability matrix. In this paper, we study the applicability of the MINC (multiple interacting continuum) method, and use a hybrid approach between matrix and fractures to correctly simulate the fracturing-fluid invasion and its backflow during hydraulic fracturing. This approach allows us to quantify the fracturing water invasion and its formation-damage effect in the whole SRV.

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“…reservoir studies are usually performed with a coarse grid full-field model and it is necessary to integrate formation damage information for the coarse grid simulation of fractured wells. The necessary of full-field information for the hydraulically fractured well simulation has been considered in the literature (see, for example, Ehrl and Schueler 2000;Sadrpanah et al 2006;Gataullin 2008;Fazelipour, 2011). Here, we address particularly the simulation of fractured wells with a coarse grid reservoir simulator.…”

Section: Simulation Of Fracturing Induced Formation Damage With a Coamentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of Fracturing Induced Formation Damage and Gas Production from Fractured Wells in Tight Gas Reservoirs

Ding

Langouët

Jeannin³

2012

All Days

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Fracturing fluid may jeopardize the production of hydraulically fractured tight gas formations. As capillary forces are acting stronger in low permeable formation, the invaded fracturing fluid is harder to be removed. The increase of water saturation around the fractured well affects the mobility of the gas phase, particularly in tight formations where the gas relative permeability declines strongly when water saturation increases. This damage might greatly reduce the gas production in a very long cleanup period. This paper presents numerical simulation techniques to account for formation damage with both a near-well model and a full-field model for fractured wells in tight formations and to integrate damage effects in a full-field reservoir model through an efficient coupled modelling.

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Explicit Simulation of Multiple Hydraulic Fractures in Horizontal Wells

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Optimization of Production in Slanted Horizontal Wells in Tight Reservoirs

Optimization of Production in Slanted Horizontal Wells in Tight Reservoirs

Simulation of the Impact of Fracturing Fluid Induced Formation Damage in Shale Gas Reservoirs

Simulation of Fracturing Induced Formation Damage and Gas Production from Fractured Wells in Tight Gas Reservoirs

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