A Fast Simulation Tool for Evaluation of Novel Well Stimulation Techniques for Tight Gas Reservoirs

Abstract

Abstract For stimulation of tight fields, alternatives to hydraulic fracturing based on hydraulic jetting are becoming available. With hydraulic jetting many (10 to 20) laterals can be created in a (sub-) vertical well. The laterals are 100 to 200 m long, typically 4 laterals are applied with a small inclination at a single kickoff depth. This type of well configuration will be called a radial well. A simulation tool based on a semi-analytical method is developed to computate the production performance of a radial well. The tool provides an efficient way to assess the production potential of a stimulated well for many different well designs. The method is particularly suitable for performing a sensitivity analysis to preselect a limited number of designs to be further analysed. The results of the tool show excellent agreement with those of a numerical reservoir simulator. As an example, the tool is applied to a stacked field with three separate reservoirs, wich have permeability ranging from 1 to 5 mD. The radial well increases cumulative gas production by 10% for the reservoir with 5 mD and by 50-70% for the reservoirs with 1 mD permeability.