Production Patterns of Eagle Ford Shale Gas: Decline Curve Analysis Using 1084 Wells

Keqiang Guo, Baosheng Zhang, Kjell Aleklett and Mikael Höök
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Keqiang Guo: School of Business Administration, China University of Petroleum (Beijing); Fuxue Road 18, Changping, Beijing 102249, China
Baosheng Zhang: School of Business Administration, China University of Petroleum (Beijing); Fuxue Road 18, Changping, Beijing 102249, China
Kjell Aleklett: Global Energy Systems, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University; Villavägen 16, Uppsala 75236, Sweden
Mikael Höök: Global Energy Systems, Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University; Villavägen 16, Uppsala 75236, Sweden

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: This paper analyzes and quantifies characteristic production behavior using historical data from 1084 shale gas wells in the Eagle Ford shale play from 2010 to 2014. Decline curve analysis, using Hyperbolic and Stretched Exponential models, are used to derive average decline rates and other characteristic parameters for shale gas wells. Both Hyperbolic and Stretched Exponential models fit well to aggregated and individual well production data. The hyperbolic model is found to perform slightly better than the Stretched Exponential model in this study. In the Eagle Ford shale play, about 77% of wells reach the peak production of 1644–4932 mil cubic feet per day; the production decline rate of the first year is around 70%, and over the first two years it is around 80%; shale gas wells were estimated to yield estimated ultimate recoverable total resources of 1.41–2.03 billion cubic feet (20 years as life span), which is in line with other studies.

Keywords: shale gas; well production; decline curve; Eagle Ford (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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