AbstractsEngineering

The recent success in economical production of US shales and other low permeability reservoirs is primarily due to advances in hydraulic fracturing. In this well stimulation technique, a fracturing fluid is injected into the reservoir at pressures high enough to break down the reservoir rock and form fractures. The fractures drain the hydrocarbons in the rock matrix and provide connected pathways for the transport of hydrocarbons to the wellbore. Given the low permeability of the matrix, recent studies of shale gas production suggest that nearly all of the production has to come from a ramified, well-connected network of fractures. A recent study has shown, however, that for reasons yet unknown, the production history of more than 8000 wells in the Barnett Shale can be fit with reasonable accuracy with a linear flow model based on parallel planar hydraulic fractures perpendicular to the wellbore and spaced 1-2 meters apart. The current study is carried out to provide insights into the formation and production properties of complex hydraulic fracture networks. The end goal here is optimization of hydraulic fracture treatments: creating better-connected, more productive fracture networks that can drain the reservoir more quickly. The study provides a mechanistic model of how complexity can emerge in the pattern of hydraulic fracture networks, and describes production from such networks. Invasion percolation has been used in this study to model how the pattern of hydraulic fracture networks develop. The algorithm was chosen because it allows quick testing of different “what if” scenarios while avoiding the high computation cost associated with numerical methods such as the finite element method. The rules that govern the invasion are based on a proposed geo-mechanical model of hydraulic fracture-natural fracture interactions. In the geo-mechanical model, development of fracture networks is modeled as a sequence of basic geo-mechanical events that take place as hydraulic fractures grow and interact with natural fractures. Analytical estimates are provided to predict the occurrence of each event. A complex network of connected fractures is the output of the invasion percolation algorithm and the geo-mechanical model. To predict gas production from the network, this study uses a random walk algorithm. The random walk algorithm was chosen over other numerical methods because of its advantage in handling the complex boundary conditions present in the problem, simplicity, accuracy and speed.