Evaluation of CO2 and Slickwater Fracturing for the Burgos Basin of Mexico

Abstract

Abstract This work aims to evaluate the fracture geometry and production scenarios comparing several fracturing fluids, such as slickwater and carbon-based fracturing fluids (CBFF), including two binary mixtures as approximations to anthropogenic CO2 resulting from carbon capture (oxyfuel, pre-combustion, and post-combustion). Reservoir flow modeling simulations show that CBFF is the best potential waterless fracturing fluid option for fracturing unconventional shale reservoirs in the Burgos Basin. We conducted fracturing simulations to obtain the fracture geometry resulting from pure CO2, gelled CO2, foamed CO2, as well as the binary mixtures CO2 (95% mol)-N2 (5% mol), and CO2 (95% mol)-H2 (5% mol) and compared the results to conventional slickwater fracturing. Data and information for this study come from a gas well in the Burgos Basin in Mexico. A compositional fracturing simulation model is used to obtain the fracture geometry and the conditions under which the CO2 fracturing would be optimal based on a sensitivity analysis of the critical parameters described in this work. We created a reservoir simulation model to generate production scenarios and compare the well performance of wells fractured with pure CO2 and slickwater. The impact of water blockage effects on well productivity is shown to be important. Results show that pure CO2, CO2-N2, and CO2-H2 create fracture geometries that are similar to slickwater fracturing. Pure CO2 provides the highest production due to the absence of water blockage effects. Other carbon-based fracturing fluids also represent an opportunity for implementing CO2 to optimize well performance reducing water blockage and water consumption for sustainably fracturing conventional and unconventional reservoirs.