A Holistic Approach to the Design and Evaluation of Hydraulic-Fracture Treatments in Tight Gas Reservoirs

Abstract

Summary This paper presents a comprehensive approach to the design of hydraulic-fracture treatments, accounting for anisotropic stress conditions, rock properties, and the effect of pore-pressure changes caused by production in tight gas reservoirs. This has allowed us, among other opportunities, to design a refracture treatment. The poroelastic model is also coupled with a production-optimization scheme to optimize the design parameters for hydraulic-fracture treatments. A case study of refracture treatment has been carried out for a typical tight gas reservoir. This study has shown that the fracture treatment can be optimized successfully to increase the net present value and/or ultimate gas recovery. This study also has demonstrated that a second fracture treatment can be performed after a period of production from the same treated interval to maintain production without the drilling of additional wells.