No abstract

Tfm paper was prepared for pmsentihon at me 1996 SPE European Petroleum Conference held m MlIan, Italy, 22-24 October 19S?3 Th!s papw was selected foi presentabon by an SPE Prcgmm Committee follovmyj rewow of mfon'nahon ccmtm.ed In an abstract wbmdted by tie author(s) Contents of the paper, as presented haw not been revmvmd by the .SocIety d Petroleum Engineers and are subject to mrrection by the author(s). The material, as presentd dm not necessarily reflect any pesmon of me society of Petroleum Engineers IS officers, or membam Papers presented at SPE meebngs am subjwt to publk?ahcmrevww by Edttonal Cwnm!ttws of the %ctely of Ptioleum Engineers Permissmn to copy ISresbwted to an abstract of not nwre tian 303 words Illustmbons may not tm copmd The abstract should contmn conspicuous acknohwdgment of '#Awe and by w410mthe pap+f WS presented Write L(braoan, SPE, P O Box 8339!33 Richardson, TX 75083-383$ U S A fax 01-21 A952-9435Abstract Thermally Induced Fracturing (TIF) is often obsened on injection wells, In this paper a well documented TIF case is presented and analysed. A numerical model is first presented where watertlooding is computed in two steps. In the first step, radial flow is considered and stress changes are computed. Depending on rock characteristics and flow rate the thermal effect (stress deerease) dominates over the pressure effect (stress increase). In the second step, as soon as the fracturing criterion is reach@ the model automatically switches to a coupled two-phase flow option where a PKN type tlacture has been incorporated, The main features of the model are srmunarized. To validate the model a field case has been anal,med where bottom hole pressure and temperature have been recorded. From field data it is shown that in the initial stage the height of the fracture varies and is thus different from the pay zone thickness, Use of Perkins and Gonzalez solution together with Prats formula allows to assess height and length evolution of the fracture. From this information, a mean fracture height can be assessed for the test duration. It is then shown that the pressure profile versus time is well given back using the numerical model, thus confirming the previous estimation of fracture dimensions.