Conceptual study of thermal stimulation in shale gas formations

Wang, Hanyi; Ajao, Omobola; Economides, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.jngse.2014.10.015

Cited by 48 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…(Lu et al 1995) is used to depict pressure-temperature dependent gas adsorption capacity. By regression on common gas adsorption data (i.e., Langmuir volume constant and Langmuir pressure constant ), gas adsorption capacity at different temperatures can be extrapolated (Wang et al 2014). Fig.6 shows the prediction of gas adsorption capacity at stimulation temperature (478 K) by fitting original Langmuir curve (determined by and ) at initial reservoir temperature (366 K) using Bi-Langmuir model.…”

Section: Fig5-unstructured Mesh and Dfn Distribution Within Simulatimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…( A.19) can be determined from a Langmuir isotherm curve at provided temperature condition by non-linear regression. Thus, the temperature effects can be included to describe shale gas adsorption capacity as a function of both pressure and temperature (as shown in Fig.6), with available Langmuir volume and Langmuir pressure values as input parameters (Wang et al, 2014), or directly fitting and validated against experiment data within possible temperature ranges (Yue et al, 2015).…”

Section: Real Gas Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wang et al (2015a) also concluded that thermal stimulation has the potential to enhance CBM recovery substantially by liberating a significant amount of residual adsorption gas. Wang et al (2014) investigated the application of thermal stimulation in hydraulically fractured shale gas formations by altering gas adsorption/desorption behavior in multiple transverse hydraulic fractures. Their work shows the efficiency of thermal treatment in shale gas formations largely depends on fracture spacing, operation conditions, gas adsorption and rock properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Numerical Study of Thermal-Hydraulic-Mechanical Simulation With Application of Thermal Recovery in Fractured Shale-Gas Reservoirs

Wang

2016

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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Shale gas is playing an important role in transforming global energy markets with increasing demands for cleaner energy in the future. One major difference in shale gas reservoirs is that a considerable amount of gas is adsorbed. Up to 85% of the total gas within shale may be found adsorbed on clay and kerogen. How much of the adsorbed gas can be produced has a significant impact on ultimate recovery. Even with improving fracturing and horizontal well technologies, average gas recovery factors in U.S. shale plays is only ~30% with primary depletion. Adsorbed gas can be desorbed by lowering pressure and raising temperature, reservoir flow capacity can be also influenced by temperature, so there is a big prize to be claimed using thermal stimulation techniques to enhance recovery. To date, not much work has been done on thermal stimulation of gas shale reservoirs.In this article, we present general formulations to simulate gas production in fractured shale gas reservoirs for the first time, with fully coupled thermal-hydraulic-mechanical (THM) properties. The unified shale gas reservoir model developed in this study enable us to investigate multi-physics phenomena in shale gas formations. Thermal stimulation of fractured gas reservoirs by heating propped fractures is proposed and investigated. This study provides some fundamental insight into real gas flow in nano-pore space and gas adsorption/desorption behavior in fractured gas shales under various in-situ conditions and sets a foundation for future research efforts in the area of enhanced recovery of shale gas reservoirs.We find that thermal stimulation of shale gas reservoirs has the potential to enhance recovery significantly by enhancing the overall flow capacity and releasing adsorbed gas that cannot be recovered by depletion, but the process may be hampered by the low rate of purely conductive heat transfer, if only the surfaces of hydraulic fractures are heated.

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Section: Fig5-unstructured Mesh and Dfn Distribution Within Simulatimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Real Gas Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Numerical Study of Thermal-Hydraulic-Mechanical Simulation With Application of Thermal Recovery in Fractured Shale-Gas Reservoirs

Wang

2016

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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“…In order to investigate the thermal induced desorption phenomena in shale gas formations under thermal stimulation process, an unconventional reservoir simulator is used based on previous work by Wang et al (2014), which incorporate temperature effects into shale gas reservoir simulation for the first time. This simulator enables us to investigate the effects of elevating temperature on the global well performance and recovery in hydraulic fractured shale gas formations, by integrating real gas flow, gas desorption and diffusion, as well as the temperature diffusion process into a coherent reservoir simulation model.…”

Section: Numerical Modeling and Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…investigated the efficiency of thermal stimulation in hydraulic fractured CBM reservoir through hot water injections and heating source inside hydraulic fractures (e.g., proppants that coated with electromagnetically excited nano-particles), their work shows that thermal stimulation has the potential to enhance CBM recovery substantially by liberating significant amount of residual adsorption gas. Wang et al (2014) investigated the feasibility of thermal stimulation in hydraulic fractured shale gas formations by altering gas adsorption/desorption behavior. Their work shows the efficiency of thermal treatment in shale gas formations largely depends on gas adsorption and rock properties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Shale Gas Recovery through Thermal Stimulation: Analysis and an Experimental Study

Lin

Wang

et al. 2015

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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The Silurian Longmaxi shale gas play in the Jiaoshiba (JSB) structure in the southeast margin of the Sichuan Basin in China is studied to discuss the key factors that control the adsorption/desorption behavior of natural gas in shale formations. The rationale for this study is that understanding these factors can be helpful in shale gas stimulation designs that enhance recovery by combining hydraulic fracturing with thermally induced desorption of adsorbed shale gas.The Jiaoshiba structure is a faulted anticline which experienced multiphase tectonic movement. The Longmaxi Formation has high thermal evolution degree with Ro more than 2.2%, and has a 35-45 meters thick high-quality shale (TOC Ͼ 2%) in its lower part. The reservoir is overpressure with a pressure coefficient of 1.55, and shale gas production and pressure are stable. Experimental measurements have indicated that more than 65% of the total gas storage in the Jiaoshiba shales exists as an adsorbed phase. Modeling the adsorbed phase can impact the selection of stimulation techniques as well as production forecasts. Adsorption generally cannot be determined accurately from history matching production data alone. The laboratory testing of actual shale samples from reservoir cores is important for characterizing shale gas adsorption behavior.Previous laboratory studies have reported data from measurements at single temperatures, and the measured data have been represented by Langmuir isotherms. However, the effect of temperature on adsorption has not been explored. In this work, a series of experiments were conducted to measure adsorption curves for shale samples at various temperatures and depths from the Jiaoshiba shales. We investigated the representation of adsorption behavior as a function of both temperature and pressure.The pressure-temperature dependent gas adsorption behavior is described by Bi-Langmuir model by fitting the unknown adsorption characteristic parameters against laboratory experiment data at low temperature, the gas adsorption behavior at higher temperature can be predicted by extrapolation from the model. The predicted gas adsorption capacity agree well with our experiment data, which demonstrate this model's capability to predict gas adsorption capacity at reservoir temperature based on data measured at laboratory conditions. The pressure and temperature sensitive gas adsorption behavior is incorporated into an unconventional reservoir simulator, to investigate how thermal stimulation can impact shale gas production and ultimate recovery from hydraulic fractured shale formations. The results indicates that thermal stimulation has the potential to enhance shale gas recovery significantly by altering shale gas adsorption/desorption behavior through the elevation of formation temperature.

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