A Cooper Basin simulation study of flow-back after hydraulic fracturing in tight gas wells
Sume Sarkar A , Manouchehr Haghighi B A , Mohammad Sayyafzadeh A , Dennis Cooke B A , Kunakorn Pokalai B A and Fathima Mohamed Ali Sahib AA The University of Adelaide
B Australian School of Petroleum
The APPEA Journal 56(1) 369-392 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ15027
Published: 2016
Abstract
After fluid injection (slickwater) during hydraulic fracturing, the flow-back of fracture fluid is necessary before gas production starts. A review of fracture treatments indicates that the incomplete return of treating fluids is a reason for the failure of hydraulic fracturing and is associated with poor gas production. The aim of this study is to investigate the parameters that limit flow-back in low permeability gas wells in the Cooper Basin.
The authors used numerical simulation to find the critical controlling parameters to introduce the best practice for maximising the flow-back in the Cooper Basin. Several 3D and multiphase flow simulation models were constructed for three wells in the Patchawarra Formation during fracture fluid injection, soaking time and during flow-back. All models were validated using history matching with the production data.
The results show that the drainage pattern is distinctly different in the following directions: vertically upward, vertically downward, and horizontal along the fracture half-length and along the matrix. The lowest recovery is observed during the upward vertical displacements due to poor sweep efficiency. Furthermore, it is observed that drawdown does not influence the recovery significantly for upward displacements. Surface tension reduction, however, can improve sweep efficiency and improve recovery considerably. Also, the wettability of the rocks has a significant impact on ultimate recovery when the effect of gravity is dominant. The authors conclude that a significant amount of injected fluid is trapped in the formation because of poor sweep efficiency and formation of gas fingers, which results from low mobility ratio and gravity segregation.
Sume Sarkar is a PhD candidate at the Australian School of Petroleum. She has experience in petroleum sector regulation in a south Asian context. She holds a MSc degree in petroleum engineering with specialisation in reservoir engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and a BSc degree in chemical engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. Sume is conducting research on two major areas for unconventional reservoirs in the Cooper Basin: fracturing fluid flow-back modelling, and geomechanical modelling for multi-stage hydraulic fracture operations. |
Manouchehr (Manny) Haghighi is Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering. His research and teaching focus is on unconventional reservoirs, reservoir simulation, well testing, and formation evaluation. He has supervised more than 40 MSc and 10 PhD students. Before joining the University of Adelaide in 2009, Manouchehr was Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tehran (Iran). From 2000–07 he was Head of the petroleum engineering program at the University of Tehran. In 2000, Manouchehr established Simtech, a consulting company for the integrated reservoir simulation. He has been project director of several full field simulation projects for oil and gas reservoirs. From 1995 to 2000, Manouchehr was working with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and was the director of a program for training NIOC staff at several universities in the US, UK, Canada, France, Australia and Norway. Manouchehr was a visiting professor at the University of Calgary from 2007–08. Manouchehr has published more than 80 articles in peer review journals or presented in international conferences. He has served as a reviewer for different journals such as the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. Member: SPE. |
Mohammad Sayyafzadeh is a Lecturer at the Australian School of Petroleum. He holds a PhD in petroleum engineering from the University of Adelaide, and a MSc degree in reservoir engineering and a BSc degree in chemical engineering from Tehran Polytechnic. Mohammad conducts research in two major areas. The first is numerical mathematics and theoretical computer science, with an emphasis on applications in the fields of reservoir engineering, such as probabilistic inverse modelling and uncertainty quantification, evolutionary computation algorithms for history matching and well placement optimisation, dimensionality reduction methods for heterogeneous reservoir characterisation, and surrogate-modelling techniques. The second area is reservoir engineering with an emphasis on unconventional resources such as modelling and simulation of enhanced coalbed methane (ECBM) recovery, simulation of CO2 sequestration in coal seams, simulation of flow-back after hydraulic fraccing in tight-sand reservoirs, pore-scale simulation of two-phase flow in naturally-fracture rocks, and well-placement optimisation in coal seam plays. Mohammad has co-authored several papers that have been published in various journals, and serves as a reviewer for a few prestigious journals and conferences. |
Dennis Cooke has a PhD in geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines, and more than 25 years of experience in oil and gas exploration and development. He is a past-president of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG), and a former vice president of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG). Dennis owns and operates ZDAC Geophysical Technology, which provides technology and services for seismic inversion and reservoir characterisation. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Adelaide’s Australian School of Petroleum. |
Kunakorn Pokalai is presently a production engineering PhD candidate at the University of Adelaide. He has a BEng in petrochemical engineering from Silpakorn University (Thailand), and completed a Graduate Certificate in Management, and a master’s in petroleum engineering from the University of Adelaide. Kunakorn’s research interests are in the simulation of unconventional reservoirs and hydraulic fracturing. He mainly focuses on the issue of fracturing fluid flowback in the Cooper Basin. He was the recipient of the prestigious AAPG Imperial Barrel Award in the Asia Pacific Region in 2014. Member: SPE and AAPG. |
Fathima Mohamed is presently a PhD candidate in petroleum engineering and management at the Australian School of Petroleum, The University of Adelaide. She received a BE degree in petroleum engineering from the same institution. Her research interests, among others, include flow back enhancement in gas wells, alternative fracturing fluids, and wettability alteration. |
