Pressure Transient Performance for a Horizontal Well Intercepted by Multiple Reorientation Fractures in a Tight Reservoir

Guoqiang Xing, Shuhong Wu, Jiahang Wang, Mingxian Wang, Baohua Wang and Jinjian Cao
Additional contact information
Guoqiang Xing: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing 100083, China
Shuhong Wu: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing 100083, China
Jiahang Wang: Engineer Institute of SINOPEC Shanghai Offshore Oil & Gas Company, Shanghai 200120, China
Mingxian Wang: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing 100083, China
Baohua Wang: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing 100083, China
Jinjian Cao: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing 100083, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 22, 1-23

Abstract: A fractured horizontal well is an effective technology to obtain hydrocarbons from tight reservoirs. In this study, a new semi-analytical model for a horizontal well intercepted by multiple finite-conductivity reorientation fractures was developed in an anisotropic rectangular tight reservoir. Firstly, to establish the flow equation of the reorientation fracture, all reorientation fractures were discretized by combining the nodal analysis technique and the fracture-wing method. Secondly, through coupling the reservoir solution and reorientation fracture solution, a semi-analytical solution for multiple reorientation fractures along a horizontal well was derived in the Laplace domain, and its accuracy was also verified. Thirdly, typical flow regimes were identified on the transient-pressure curves. Finally, dimensionless pressure and pressure derivative curves were obtained to analyze the effect of key parameters on the flow behavior, including fracture angle, permeability anisotropy, fracture conductivity, fracture spacing, fracture number, and fracture configuration. Results show that, for an anisotropic rectangular tight reservoir, horizontal wells should be deployed parallel to the direction of principal permeability and fracture reorientation should be controlled to extend along the direction of minimum permeability. Meanwhile, the optimal fracture number should be considered for economic production and the fracture spacing should be optimized to reduce the flow interferences between reorientation fractures.

Keywords: semi-analytical model; reorientation fractures; horizontal well; tight reservoir; flow behavior (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: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4232/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/22/4232/ (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:12:y:2019:i:22:p:4232-:d:284188

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 ().