Intricate unconventional fracture networks provide fluid diffusion pathways to reactivate pre-existing faults in unconventional reservoirs

Gang Hui, Zhangxin Chen, Ryan Schultz, Shengnan Chen, Zhaojie Song, Zhaochen Zhang, Yilei Song, Hai Wang, Muming Wang and Fei Gu

Energy, 2023, vol. 282, issue C

Abstract: Hydraulic fracturing-induced earthquakes are typically triggered via a hydraulic connection between stimulated wells and pre-existing faults. Despite this, relatively little modeling has focused on fluid migration along fractures and faults in shale reservoirs. The experimental measurements and logging data were collected first to create a high-resolution 3D petrophysical and geomechanical model of a Duvernay reservoir. To simulate the real-time growth of complex hydraulic-natural fracture networks, an unconventional fracture model (UFM) is constructed that considers fluid flow, interactions between hydraulic and natural fractures, reservoir petrophysics, and geomechanics. Coupled poroelastic modeling quantifies the well-fault hydraulic connection in terms of spatiotemporal stress and pressure changes, assessing the fault stability during hydraulic fracturing. The UFM model is applied to three field case studies, and the findings are evaluated against those of induced earthquake clusters. The non-uniform intricate fracture networks are discovered to provide fluid diffusion pathways for hydraulic fracturing-induced earthquakes. To reduce possible seismic risks, fault stability must be assessed prior to hydraulic fracturing in unconventional reservoirs.

Keywords: Shale gas reservoir; Hydraulic fracturing-induced earthquakes; Unconventional fracture model; Fluid diffusion pathways; Reduce seismic risks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223021977
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:282:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223021977

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128803

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().