Investigation of the Gas Pressure Field and Production Rate for Two Typical Proppants: Small-Sized Continuous and Large-Sized Discontinuous Proppants

Abstract

The small-sized proppant is widely used in the traditional hydraulic fracturing reservoir stimulation, but the theoretical research shows that the large-sized proppant can greatly improve the fracture permeability. Although many scholars have proposed the method of using large-sized proppant, the characteristics of the pressure field change and gas drainage rate during reservoir development are still unclear after pumping large-sized proppant. In this article, to study the change regularity of the reservoir pressure field, two representative proppants are selected: the small-sized proppant and large-sized proppants. First, the Navier–Stokes equations are solved using the numerical simulation method, and the characteristics of the reservoir pressure field are finely reproduced. Then, the production rate is discussed to reveal the huge potential of large-sized proppant for the natural gas development. The results show that under the same conditions, if the particle size of the proppant increases by 5 times, then the reservoir permeability will increase by 27 times approximately, and the single well production efficiency will increase by 17~19 times in the first 3000 days. In addition, a new quantitative model is proposed to evaluate the permeability magnification of the fracture and reservoir when adopting the large-sized proppant. This study further confirms that the method of large-sized proppant proposed by the author in the earlier stage has great potential. This study is helpful for the researchers and engineers to better understand the evolution regularity of the reservoir pressure field and gas production rate in the process of oil and gas exploitation after using the large-sized proppant.