Proppant transport in complex fracture networks – A review

Sahai, Raki; Moghanloo, Rouzbeh Ghanbarnezhad

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106199

Cited by 95 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…However, the formation mechanisms and regulation strategies of FNs were not entirely known, and the morphology of fracture surfaces is almost completely neglected. In fact, the complex fracture distribution and the characteristics of fractured surfaces play a decisive role in the transport and settling of lost circulation materials and proppant [30,31]. More importantly, the connections between the fracturing experiments and the relevant theoretical models have not been established.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation on the Initiation of Hydraulic Fractures from a Simulated Wellbore in Laminated Shale

Liu

Chen²,

et al. 2021

Lithosphere

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Understanding the formation mechanisms of complex fracture networks is vitally important for hydraulic fracturing operations in shale formation. For this purpose, a hydraulic fracturing experiment under a core-plunger scale is conducted to investigate the impact of the bedding plane angle, borehole size, and injection rate on fracture initiation behaviors of laminated shale rock. The results on rock properties demonstrate that the anisotropic characteristics of shale rock are reflected not only in elastic modulus but also in tensile strength. The results of fracturing experiments show that the bedding plane dip angle and borehole size have significant effects on fracture initiation behaviors, in that fracture initiation pressure (FIP) decreases with the increase of those two factors. The impact of injection rate, by contrast, has no obvious variety regulation. The above data is further used to validate our previously proposed fully anisotropic FIP model, which shows better agreement with experimental results than those using other models under various parameter combinations. Finally, a postfracturing analysis is performed to identify the fracture growth patterns and the microstructures on the fracture surfaces. The results show that the hydraulic fractures (HFs) always grow along mechanically favorable directions, and the potential interaction between HFs and bedding planes mainly manifests as fracture arrest. Meanwhile, the roughness of fracture surfaces is physically different from each other, which in turn results in the difficulties of fluid flow and proppant migration. The findings of this study can help for a better understanding of the fracture initiation behavior of laminated shale rock and the corresponding fracture morphology.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Investigation on the Initiation of Hydraulic Fractures from a Simulated Wellbore in Laminated Shale

Liu

Chen²,

et al. 2021

Lithosphere

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“…However, its high price limits its field application in China. Besides, laboratory studies have also shown that the fracture roughness and tortuosity can also affect the proppant settling and transportation 4 , 9 , 10 , but they are hard to quantify based on laboratory results, especially for heterogeneous reservoirs like tight conglomerates in Mahu. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the performance of different types of proppants through field experiments, so as to explore the conditions when silica sands can partially or completely replace the ceramic proppants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field experiments of different fracturing designs in tight conglomerate oil reservoirs

Zhang¹,

Zhang³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Mahu oilfield is currently the largest tight conglomerate reservoir in the world, where Ma-131 and Ma-18 plays are the first two commercially developed reservoirs. In order to reduce the cost and explore the best fracturing parameters, field experiments have been conducted in these two plays since 2017. Types of proppant and fracturing fluid, the slickwater ratio, and the fracture spacing are mainly changed for comparison, and fracturing effects are evaluated to establish a reference for developing neighboring plays in the Mahu oilfield. This paper summarizes the fracturing parameters and production histories of 74 wells in Ma-131 and Ma-18 plays during four years of field operations. Firstly, results indicate that silica sands perform similar to ceramics in the Ma-131 play where the reservoir depth is smaller than 3300 m; however, in the Ma-18 play where the reservoir is deeper than 3500 m, increasing the sand volume by 1.1–1.2 times still cannot reach the production in wells using ceramics. Secondly, when the fracture spacing is reduced, both oil production and water flowback become even smaller in wells using sands than those using ceramics; this is due to the increase of closure pressure and decrease of fluid volume per cluster respectively. Thirdly, when the crosslinked guar is replaced by the slickwater, no obvious change in oil production is noticed even though the volume of fracturing fluid is almost doubled; limited lengths of propped fractures due to the poor proppant-carrying ability of slickwater likely offset the production enhancement from the decrease of formation damage by slickwater. This paper summarizes learnings from the field experiments during the four-year development of the Mahu oilfield, and help guide the optimization of hydraulic fracturing parameters for future wells.

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“…Hydraulic fracturing is an important technology of the development of unconventional reservoirs reservoir, after the construction, in-situ stress can lead to fractures gradually closed, early with the fracturing fluid pumping proppant is in order to prevent fracture closure, keep fractures higher diverting capacity, to provide high-speed channel for oil and gas flow to the wellbore, proppant migration pave setting behavior directly decides the fill fracture diverting capacity [1][2][3][4]. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the transportation and placement of proppant in the fracture to guide the field fracturing operation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Proppant Dynamics in a Rough Inclined Fracture

Guo¹,

Luo²,

Mou³

et al. 2022

Fluid Dynamics &Amp; Materials Processing

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Although the dynamics of proppant (small ceramic balls used to prevent opened fractures from closing on the release of pressure) have been the subject of several numerical studies over recent years, large-scale inclined fractures exist in unconventional reservoirs for which relevant information is still missing. In the present study, this problem is investigated numerically considering the influence of several relevant factors such as the fracture roughness, inclination, the proppant particle size, the injection rate and the fluid viscosity. The results show that a rough wall enables the proppant to travel farther and cover larger areas. The inclination angle has little effect on the dune but a significant influence on the suspension zone. The area of this zone increases with a decrease in the inclination angle, and its value for an inclination of 15°is 20 times that at 90°. Small particle size, high injection rate, and high fracturing fluid viscosity have a beneficial influence on proppant transport; vice versa they hinder settling phenomena.

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Proppant transport in complex fracture networks – A review

Cited by 95 publications

References 12 publications

Experimental Investigation on the Initiation of Hydraulic Fractures from a Simulated Wellbore in Laminated Shale

Experimental Investigation on the Initiation of Hydraulic Fractures from a Simulated Wellbore in Laminated Shale

Field experiments of different fracturing designs in tight conglomerate oil reservoirs

Numerical Simulation of Proppant Dynamics in a Rough Inclined Fracture

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