Production-Pressure-Drawdown Management for Fractured Horizontal Wells in Shale-Gas Formations

Mirani, Ankit; Marongiu-Porcu, Matteo; Wang, Hanyi; Enkababian, Philippe

doi:10.2118/181365-pa

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Among several factors to be considered in well design and production strategy, drawdown (and the associated hydraulic gradient) is one of the most important, as it can even influence Estimated Ultimate Recovery (EUR) from reservoirs. Belyadi et al (2016) and Mirani et al (2017) point out in their studies that high drawdown production can decrease EUR from fractured horizontal wells in shale-gas formation through stress-related reduction in hydraulic fracture conductivity and matrix and natural-fracture permeability.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of vertical anisotropy on optimization of multilateral well geometry

Lux

Szanyi

2022

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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Multilateral wells have been increasingly used in recent years by different industries such as the oil-and gas industry (incl. coal-bed methane (CBM)) and geothermal energy production. The common purpose of these wells in the oil industry and partially in the geothermal industry is to achieve a higher production rate per well without increasing the hydraulic gradient significantly. In geothermal systems the ultimate objective is to improve heat extraction performance by enhancing productivity but also by increasing the heat transfer area.Optimal design of multilateral wells has been the focus of numerous publications in CBM and unconventional oil-and gas production, but as a result of cross-fertilization and technology-transfer among different sectors in the energy industry in the last few years, the focus of research on multilateral wells has turned to enhanced geothermal systems (EGS).Recently, several papers have been published on the use of multilateral wells in deep geothermal reservoirs. Coaxial closed-loop geothermal systems with multilateral wells utilize only the increased heat transfer area due to the laterals while EGS's with multilateral injection and production wells also benefit from the hydrodynamic advantages of such well configurations. However, substantial emphasis isunderstandablyplaced on the effect of artificial and natural fracture networks of EGS reservoirs and less focus is devoted to the impact of vertical permeability anisotropy which can seriously influence the flow pattern of a given configuration. Similarly, in CBM-related studies, the effect of horizontal permeability anisotropy along the face cleats to the butt cleats on multilateral well-design was investigated and vertical permeability anisotropy was not considered.In the current work we present a generalized approach for evaluating the effects of vertical permeability anisotropy on multilateral well geometry by numerical hydrodynamic modelling in an idealized, homogeneous hydrogeological setting.Current paper proposes an alternative modelling approach for representing the non-horizontal branches of multilateral wells by introducing a thin layer for the laterals with the same inclination as the well branches. This approach is then is used to investigate the effect of anisotropy on the flow pattern and near-wellbore drawdown and hydraulic gradient in the case of different branch deviations. Results suggest that the benefits of highly deviated or horizontal laterals emerge when vertical anisotropy is high. Evaluation of branch deviation vs. anisotropy indicates that above approx. 60 • there is no significant benefit in increasing deviation which implies that very highly deviated or horizontal laterals might not necessarily pay off the associated technical challenges and extra costs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of vertical anisotropy on optimization of multilateral well geometry

Lux

Szanyi

2022

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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“…Similar to our presented model, Eshkalak et al (2014) modeled the non-Darcy flow effects in the matrix with an exponential decline for the change in propped-hydraulic-fracture and induced-fracture permeability as a function of confining pressure. The choosing of matching parameters and fracture permeability estimation are discussed by Mirani et al (2018). Fig.35 shows the production history matches obtained with two different models.…”

Section: Model Validation With Field Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

Discrete fracture networks modeling of shale gas production and revisit rate transient analysis in heterogeneous fractured reservoirs

Wang

2018

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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To cite this version:Hanyi Wang. Discrete fracture networks modeling of shale gas production and revisit rate transient analysis in heterogeneous fractured reservoirs. AbstractHorizontal wells with multiple hydraulic fractures are necessary stimulation technique for economically developing tight and shale gas reservoirs. In such reservoirs, the conventional well-test techniques are not suitable because of ultralow formation permeability. Rate transient analysis (RTA) is the widely used tool for analyzing these reservoirs for the purpose of reserves estimation, hydraulic fracture stimulation optimization, and development planning. However, the conventional rate transient analysis is based on the models that were derived from idealistic assumptions for homogenous reservoirs. In this article, we first review the industry's common practice for rate transient analysis and discuss why the idealized conceptual model may not be adequate for analyzing production data from shale gas reservoirs. Then, a unified shale gas reservoir model based on Discrete Fracture Networks (DFN) is presented to investigate how each mechanism influences shale gas production and the corresponding rate transient behavior. It is found that shale gas production and rate transient behavior are significantly impacted reservoir heterogeneity, fracture networks, non-Darcy flow, gas adsorption and completion efficiency. Short earlytime linear flow with long transitional flow period is an indication of either existence of abundant complex fracture network or heterogeneous completion with unevenly distributed hydraulic fractures. Consider the nature of non-unique results of RTA, information from other independent sources is required to achieve a consistent and holistic interpretation.

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“…The unpredictability is suspected to be due to the poorly understood nature of the physics of the drawdown process, which is exacerbated by the impact of resource development processes themselves (e.g., slow drawdown or fast drawdown) 2 , 4 . Thus innovative extraction strategies and advanced workflows could significantly improve the hydrocarbon recovery efficiency and long-term economics 12 – 14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A machine learning framework for rapid forecasting and history matching in unconventional reservoirs

Srinivasan

O’Malley

Mudunuru

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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We present a novel workflow for forecasting production in unconventional reservoirs using reduced-order models and machine-learning. Our physics-informed machine-learning workflow addresses the challenges to real-time reservoir management in unconventionals, namely the lack of data (i.e., the time-frame for which the wells have been producing), and the significant computational expense of high-fidelity modeling. We do this by applying the machine-learning paradigm of transfer learning, where we combine fast, but less accurate reduced-order models with slow, but accurate high-fidelity models. We use the Patzek model (Proc Natl Acad Sci 11:19731–19736, 10.1073/pnas.1313380110, 2013) as the reduced-order model to generate synthetic production data and supplement this data with synthetic production data obtained from high-fidelity discrete fracture network simulations of the site of interest. Our results demonstrate that training with low-fidelity models is not sufficient for accurate forecasting, but transfer learning is able to augment the knowledge and perform well once trained with the small set of results from the high-fidelity model. Such a physics-informed machine-learning (PIML) workflow, grounded in physics, is a viable candidate for real-time history matching and production forecasting in a fractured shale gas reservoir.

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Production-Pressure-Drawdown Management for Fractured Horizontal Wells in Shale-Gas Formations

Cited by 21 publications

References 32 publications

Effects of vertical anisotropy on optimization of multilateral well geometry

Effects of vertical anisotropy on optimization of multilateral well geometry

Discrete fracture networks modeling of shale gas production and revisit rate transient analysis in heterogeneous fractured reservoirs

A machine learning framework for rapid forecasting and history matching in unconventional reservoirs

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