Production data analysis of shale gas using fractal model and fuzzy theory: Evaluating fracturing heterogeneity

Xu-Tao You, Jian-Yi Liu, Chun-Sheng Jia, Jun Li, Xin-Yi Liao and Ai-Wei Zheng

Applied Energy, 2019, vol. 250, issue C, 1246-1259

Abstract: The development of shale-gas reservoirs has been dramatically accelerated with the technical breakthroughs made in the fields of horizontal well drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing. After being restructured by hydraulic fracturing, the shale reservoir would have a complicated fracture network featuring great randomness. The accurate evaluation of the fracture network structure and the quantitative calculation of the fracturing fluid flowback are keys to the efficient development of shale-gas fields. In this paper, a new fractal seepage model of single fracturing section was established based on the conversion relationship of gas-liquid flow fractal dimension. Then, the sensitivity of model parameters and the flow characteristics of single fracture section were analyzed to determine the reason that gas production “rises first, and then drops down” at the initial production phase. Finally, the mathematical description of the heterogeneity of fracture networks was further proposed based on Fuzzy theory. Case studies in Fuling shale-gas field were performed by means of the Extended Monte Carlo Simulation and the optimal fracturing heterogeneity factors of typical wells are 0.25, 0.10 and 0.15. Compared with the homogeneous model, the accuracies of gas production and water production calculated by heterogeneous model are increased by up to 15% and 20%, respectively.

Keywords: Fracturing heterogeneity; Shale gas; Fractal seepage model; Fuzzy theory; Production data analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.049

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