Mechanisms Controlling Fracture Height Growth in Layered Media

Naceur, Kamel Ben; Touboul, Éric

doi:10.2118/16433-ms

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Very many fractures, such as joints and veins, tend to be restricted to single layers, particularly if the contacts between the layers are discontinuities or sites of abrupt changes in mechanical properties. Fracture restriction is also reflected in the commonly observed inverse correlation between joint frequency and layer thickness (Ladeira and Price, 1981;Nelson, 1985;Price and Cosgrove, 1990;Narr and Suppe, 1991;Wu and Pollard, 1995;Ji et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hydraulic fractures in petroleum engineering become arrested when their vertical tips enter layers of high fracture-perpendicular compressive stresses or meet with sharp contacts between mechanically contrasting layers (e.g., Daneshy, 1978;Simonson et al, 1978;van Eekelen, 1982;Warpinski et al, 1982;Teufel and Clark, 1984;Warpinski and Teufel, 1987;Naceur and Touboul, 1990;Valko and Economides, 1995;Charlez, 1997;Yew, 1997;Economides and Nolte, 2000;Zhang et al, 2007).…”

Section: Field Observations and Numerical Model On Hydrofracture Emplmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of mechanical layering on hydrofracture emplacement and fluid transport in reservoirs

2013

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Fractures generated by internal fluid pressure, for example, dykes, mineral veins, many joints and man-made hydraulic fractures, are referred to as hydrofractures. Together with shear fractures, they contribute significantly to the permeability of fluid reservoirs such as those of petroleum, geothermal water, and groundwater. Analytical and numerical models show that-in homogeneous host rocks-any significant overpressure in hydrofractures theoretically generates very high crack tip tensile stresses. Consequently, overpressured hydrofractures should propagate and help to form interconnected fracture systems that would then contribute to the permeability of fluid reservoirs. Field observations, however, show that in heterogeneous and anisotropic, e.g., layered, rocks many hydrofractures become arrested or offset at layer contacts and do not form vertically interconnected networks. The most important factors that contribute to hydrofracture arrest are discontinuities (including contacts), stiffness changes between layers, and stress barriers, where the local stress field is unfavorable to hydrofracture propagation. A necessary condition for a hydrofracture to propagate to the surface is that the stress field along its potential path is everywhere favorable to extension-fracture formation so that the probability of hydrofracture arrest is minimized. Mechanical layering and the resulting heterogeneous stress field largely control whether evolving hydrofractures become confined to single layers (stratabound fractures) or not (non-stratabound fractures) and, therefore, if a vertically interconnected fracture system forms. Non-stratabound hydrofractures may propagate through many layers and generate interconnected fracture systems. Such systems commonly reach the percolation threshold and largely control the overall permeability of the fluid reservoirs within which they develop.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Field Observations and Numerical Model On Hydrofracture Emplmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of mechanical layering on hydrofracture emplacement and fluid transport in reservoirs

2013

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“…Using the formula (8), and the drawdown pressure is equal to the pressure drop of the whole production system Δp, by fixing the drawdown pressure, it is a given number. The production Q i of one fracture could be calculated through Newton iteration method.…”

Section: Productivity Formula For Horizontal Wellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Productivity calculation for fractured wells in low permeability gas reservoirs

Chen¹,

Zhang²,

Li³

2015

Future Energy, Environment and Materials II

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PH gas field, which located in East China Offshore, has the characteristic: Prematurely Senile Appearance. That means it is currently in the middle period of development, but has many features of the later period of the gas field's life. In order to compensate the reduction of gas production, the development of low permeability gas reservoirs has been carried out these years. Low permeability gas reservoirs which distributed in the lower stratum have the permeability ranges between 0.3 mD ~ 1 mD. Developing practice shows that the reservoirs with permeability lower than 1 mD haven't natural productivity to maintain regular production. As a result, researches and practices of reconstruction and fracturing had been implemented during the past years. In recent researches, calculation methods related to productivity, reservoir selection and fracturing design etc. were developed and applied, while the equations and analysis methods in accordance with the practice were presented in this paper.

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“…and pore pressure generally has only secondary effects on containment; d)Inherent properties of the interface also contribute to fracture containment. Kamek Ben Naceur (1990) [4] and Smith (2001) [5] classified the factors into two parts, first part is the controllable factors which include the fracturing fluid properties and treatment parameters, and the other part is uncontrollable ones consist of reservoir properties. In addition, domestic researchers have also done a lot of job.…”

Section: Factors Affecting Fracture Heightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Fracture Height Containment in Poor and Thin Pay Zones

Zhang¹,

Zhang²,

Ma³

et al. 2014

JIII

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So far, some of the domestic oilfields have entered the high water cut stage after a long term production, and the objects of the exploration are shifting from thick and high quality pay zones to the thin and poor pay zones. For the development of thin and poor reservoir, hydraulic fracturing is an extremely effective measure to enhance production, but the fracture height always gets out of control when stimulating these kind of pay zones. Considering the problem, the paper firstly summarized the factors affecting fracture height based on literature researches; then an orthogonal design including seven factors of five level was made according to the reservoir parameters and construction parameters of M Oilfield , and the fracture propagation under each situation was simulated with FracproPT. On the grounds of simulation results, further sensitivity analysis and single factor analysis were conducted. The results turn out that factors impacting fracture height are sequentially: in-situ stress contrast between barrier layer and target layer, total amount of fracture fluid, pumping rate, fracture fluid viscosity, Young modulus contrast, reservoir permeability and fracture toughness contrast. Finally, the paper gives strategies to confine the fracture vertical growth in the light of simulation results, and a field case was used to certify the feasibility of the strategy. The research can help to optimize the hydraulic fracturing design and guide the on-site treatment.  Index Terms-thin and poor pay zones, hydraulic fracturing, fracture height containment, factors affecting fracture height, orthogonal design

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Mechanisms Controlling Fracture Height Growth in Layered Media

Cited by 7 publications

References 42 publications

Effects of mechanical layering on hydrofracture emplacement and fluid transport in reservoirs

Effects of mechanical layering on hydrofracture emplacement and fluid transport in reservoirs

Productivity calculation for fractured wells in low permeability gas reservoirs

Research on Fracture Height Containment in Poor and Thin Pay Zones

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