Integrating Reservoir Geomechanics with Multiple Fracture Propagation and Proppant Placement
TL;DR: In this paper, a coupled finite-volume (FV)/finite-area (FA) model was proposed to simulate the propagation of multiple hydraulically driven fractures in two and three dimensions at the wellbore and pad scale.
Abstract:
This paper presents the formulation and results from a coupled finite-volume (FV)/finite-area (FA) model for simulating the propagation of multiple hydraulically driven fractures in two and three dimensions at the wellbore and pad scale. The proposed method captures realistic representations of local heterogeneities, layering, fracture turning, poroelasticity, interactions with other fractures, and proppant transport. We account for competitive fluid and proppant distribution between multiple fractures from the wellbore. Details of the model formulation and its efficient numerical implementation are provided, along with numerical studies comparing the model with both analytical solutions and field results. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for the comprehensive modeling of hydraulically driven fractures in three dimensions at a pad scale.
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TL;DR: The physics of proppant transport in fractured reservoirs is of great interest to the oil and gas industry; nevertheless, the outcomes are controversial as mentioned in this paper, and the results are controversial.
44 citations
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reviewed the application of 4D seismic technology in extending the life of hydrocarbon fields and improving hydrocarbon recovery, with specific consideration to the progresses made over the last decades.
23 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a fully integrated poro-thermo-elastic hydraulic fracturing and three-phase black-oil reservoir simulator is presented, which allows us to implicitly couple 3D reservoir simulations with the transport and settling of multiple proppants as the fracture propagates, dilates and closes.
16 citations
23 Sep 2019
TL;DR: Zheng et al. as mentioned in this paper developed a fully implicit, 3D, parallelized, poroelastic, compositional, reservoir-fracture simulator to seamlessly model fluid production/injection (water or gas) in the parent well and model propagation of multiple fractures from the child well.
Abstract:
Mitigating the negative impact of frac-hits on production from parent and child wells is challenging. In this work, we show the impact of parent well depletion and repressurization on the child well fracture propagation and parent well productivity in different US shale reservoirs. By repressurizing the parent well, we do not imply repressurization of the entire depleted reservoir. By repressurizing the parent well, we imply pressurization of only the near fracture regions. Our goal is to develop a method to better manage production/injection in the parent well and stimulation operations in the child well to minimize frac-hits and improve oil and gas recovery.
We have developed a fully implicit, 3-D, parallelized, poroelastic, compositional, reservoir-fracture simulator to seamlessly model fluid production/injection (water or gas) in the parent well and model propagation of multiple fractures from the child well (Zheng et al., 2019a; Manchanda et al., 2019a). This simulator implicitly solves for the reservoir deformation and pressure, fracture pressure and injection/production rate to quantify the stress changes due to production/injection, and also the propagation of child well fractures resulting in parent-child well interactions. Component mass balance equations and equation of state-based flash calculations are coupled with the implicit solver to account for the phase behavior in different reservoir fluids and also during the injection process.
We have analyzed the effects of drawdown rate and production time in three shale plays: Permian (oil), Eagle Ford (volatile oil/gas condensate) and Haynesville (dry gas) reservoirs. The results show that different reservoir fluids and drawdown strategies for the parent wells result in different stress distributions in the depleted zone and this affects the child well fracture propagation. We studied different strategies to repressurize the parent well by varying the injected fluids (gas vs. water), pre-load fluid volumes, etc. It was found that frac-hits can be avoided if the fluid injection strategy is designed appropriately. In some poorly designed pre-loading strategies, frac-hits are still observed. Lastly, we analyzed the impact of pre-loading on the parent well productivity. When water was used for pre-loading, we observed water blocking in the reservoir that caused damage to the parent well. However, when gas was injected for pre-loading, the oil recovery of the parent well was observed to increase.
We present, for the first time, fully compositional geomechanical simulations of child well fracture propagation around depleted parent wells. We study the impact of parent well production reservoir fluid, etc. on child well fracture propagation. Fluid injection (pre-loading) strategy in the parent well and subsequent avoidance of frac-hits is also modeled. Such simulations of parent-child well interactions provide much-needed quantification to predict and mitigate the damage caused by depletion and frac-hits.
15 citations
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4,211 citations
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04 Sep 2011TL;DR: In this paper, a discussion of the behavior of the solution as the mesh width tends to zero is presented, and the applicability of the method to more general difference equations and to those with arbitrarily many independent variables is made clear.
Abstract: Problems involving the classical linear partial differential equations of mathematical physics can be reduced to algebraic ones of a very much simpler structure by replacing the differentials by difference quotients on some (say rectilinear) mesh. This paper will undertake an elementary discussion of these algebraic problems, in particular of the behavior of the solution as the mesh width tends to zero. For present purposes we limit ourselves mainly to simple but typical cases, and treat them in such a way that the applicability of the method to more general difference equations and to those with arbitrarily many independent variables is made clear.
2,047 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: An automatic error-controlled adaptive mesh refinement algorithm is set up in order to automatically produce a solution of pre-determined accuracy, based on a new stabilised and bounded second-order differencing scheme proposed.
Abstract: The accuracy of numerical simulation algorithms is one of main concerns in modern Computational Fluid Dynamics. Development of new and more accurate mathematical models requires an insight into the problem of numerical errors. In order to construct an estimate of the solution error in Finite Volume calculations, it is first necessary to examine its sources. Discretisation errors can be divided into two groups: errors caused by the discretisation of the solution domain and equation discretisation errors. The first group includes insufficient mesh resolution, mesh skewness and non-orthogonality. In the case of the second order Finite Volume method, equation discretisation errors are represented through numerical diffusion. Numerical diffusion coefficients from the discretisation of the convection term and the temporal derivative are derived. In an attempt to reduce numerical diffusion from the convection term, a new stabilised and bounded second-order differencing scheme is proposed. Three new methods of error estimation are presented. The Direct Taylor Series Error estimate is based on the Taylor series truncation error analysis. It is set up to enable single-mesh single-run error estimation. The Moment Error estimate derives the solution error from the cell imbalance in higher moments of the solution. A suitable normalisation is used to estimate the error magnitude. The Residual Error estimate is based on the local inconsistency between face interpolation and volume integration. Extensions of the method to transient flows and the Local Residual Problem error estimate are also given. Finally, an automatic error-controlled adaptive mesh refinement algorithm is set up in order to automatically produce a solution of pre-determined accuracy. It uses mesh refinement and unrefinement to control the local error magnitude. The method is tested on several characteristic flow situations, ranging from incompressible to supersonic flows, for both steady-state and transient problems.
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