Impact of Stress-Dependent Matrix and Fracture Properties on Shale Gas Production

Huiying Tang, Yuan Di, Yongbin Zhang and Hangyu Li
Additional contact information
Huiying Tang: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yuan Di: College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yongbin Zhang: Tarim Oil Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, Xinjiang, China
Hangyu Li: Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Unconventional shale gas production is often characterized by a short period of high production followed by a rapid decline in the production rate. Given the high costs of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, it is critical to identify the mechanisms behind the production loss. The existing shale gas production models often assume constant matrix permeability. However, laboratory observations show that matrix permeability can decrease significantly with increasing effective stress, which highlights the necessity of considering the stress-dependent properties of shale matrix in production analysis. Moreover, the compaction of pore space will also increase the matrix permeability by enhancing the gas-slippage effect. In this paper, a matrix permeability model which couples the effect of pore volume compaction and non-Darcy slip flow is derived. Numerical simulations are conducted to understand the role of matrix permeability evolution during production. Changes of fractures’ permeability and contact area during depletion process are also taken into account. The results indicate that the loss of fracture permeability has a greater impact at the early stage of the depletion process, while matrix permeability evolution is more important for the long-term production.

Keywords: shale gas production; gas-slippage effect; stress-dependent matrix and fracture properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/7/996/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/7/996/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:7:p:996-:d:104698

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().