Numerical Simulation of Hydraulic Fractures Breaking through Barriers in Shale Gas Reservoir in Well YS108-H3 in the Zhaotong Shale Gas Demonstration Area

Author:

Sun Shasha1,Yang Xinyu2,Rui Yun3,Shi Zhensheng1ORCID,Cheng Feng1,Chen Shangbin2,Zhou Tianqi1,Chang Yan1,Sun Jian1

Affiliation:

1. PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing 100083, China

2. School of Resources and Geosciences, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221000, China

3. PetroChina Zhejiang Oil and Gas Field Company, Hangzhou 310000, China

Abstract

Estimating the effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing in the context of the incrfease in the shale gas demand is of great significance for enhancing shale gas production, which aims to substantially reduce fossil energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The Zhaotong national shale gas demonstration zone has complex stress structures and well-developed fracture zones, and thus it is challenging to achieve targeted reservoir segment transformation. In this paper, we construct and optimize the geometry of hydraulic fractures at different pressures considering the upper and lower barriers in hydraulic fracturing simulation experiments and numerical modeling. The numerical simulation results show that the pore pressure exhibits a stepped pattern around the fracture and an elliptical pattern near the fracture tip. During the first time of injection, the pore pressure rapidly increases to 76 MPa, dropping sharply afterward, indicating that the fracture initiation pressure is 76 MPa. During the fracture propagation, the fracture length is much greater than the fracture height and width. The fracture width is larger in the middle than on the two sides, whereas the fracture height gradually decreases at the fracture tip in the longitudinal direction until it closes and is smaller near the wellbore than at the far end. The results revealed that the fracture width at the injection point reached the maximum value of 9.05 mm, and then it gradually decreased until the fracture width at the injection point dropped to 6.33 mm at the final simulation time. The fracture broke through the upper and lower barriers due to the dominance of the effect of the interlayer principal stress difference on the fracture propagation shape, causing the hydraulic fracture to break through the upper and lower barriers. The results of the physical simulation experiment revealed that after hydraulic fracturing, multiple primary fractures were generated on the side surface of the specimen. The primary fractures extended, inducing the generation of secondary fractures. After hydraulic fracturing, the width of the primary fractures on the surface of the specimen was 0.382–0.802 mm, with maximum fracture widths of 0.802 mm and 0.239 mm, representing a decrease of 70.19% in the maximum fracture width. This work yielded an important finding, i.e., the urgent need for hydraulic fracturing adaptation promotes the three-dimensional development of a gas shale play.

Funder

Major Special Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of PetroChina

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Geography, Planning and Development,Building and Construction

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