Laboratory Evaluation and Field Application of a Gas-Soluble Plugging Agent: Development of Bottom Water Plugging Fracturing Technology

Aiguo Hu, Kezhi Li, Yunhui Feng, Hucheng Fu and Ying Zhong ()
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Aiguo Hu: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Kezhi Li: Research Institute of Engineering and Technique, Sinopec Huabei Sub-Company, Zhengzhou 450006, China
Yunhui Feng: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
Hucheng Fu: Research Institute of Engineering and Technique, Sinopec Huabei Sub-Company, Zhengzhou 450006, China
Ying Zhong: State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 18, 1-24

Abstract: The currently reported bottom water sealing materials and fracturing technologies can hardly simultaneously achieve the high production and low water cut of gas reservoirs due to the complexity of various formation conditions. Therefore, without controlling the fracturing scale and injection volume, a kind of polylactide polymer water plugging material with a density of 1.15–2.0 g/cm 3 is developed, which can be used to seal the bottom water of a gas–water differential layer by contact solidification with water and automatic degradation with natural gas. This technology can not only fully release the production capacity of the gas reservoir but also effectively control water production and realize the efficient fracturing development of the target gas reservoir. Laboratory test results show that the smart plugging agent has a bottom water plugging rate of 100%, and the low-density plugging agent has a dissolution rate of 96.7% in methane gas at 90 °C for 4 h and a dissolution rate of 97.6% in methane gas at 60 °C for 6 h, showing remarkable gas degradation performance. In addition, settlement experiments show that the presence of a proppant can increase the settlement rate of a plugging agent up to many times (up to 21 times) in both water and guanidine gum solution. According to the actual conditions of well J66-8-3, a single-well water plugging fracturing scheme was prepared by optimizing the length of fracture, plugging agent dosage, and plugging agent sinking time, and a post-evaluation method was proposed. It has guiding significance to the development of similar gas reservoirs.

Keywords: gas-soluble plugging agent; bottom water; water plugging fracturing technology; unconventional oil and gas resources (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: 2022
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