A practical fracability evaluation for tight sandstone reservoir with natural interface
Runhua Feng A C , Ruijie Chen B and Mohammad Sarmadivaleh AA School of WASM: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, Kensington, WA, 6151, Australia.
B School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Kensington, WA, 6151, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: runhua.feng@student.curtin.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 59(1) 221-227 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18230
Submitted: 7 December 2018 Accepted: 7 March 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
Hydraulic fracturing has been widely applied to enhance the conductivity in tight sandstone reservoirs, i.e. reservoirs with low porosity and permeability. The interaction between a hydraulic fracture (HF) and a natural fracture (NF), including crossing, arresting and opening (tensile or dilation), are crucial for controlling the fracability of a reservoir. Previous studies have elucidated that shear dilation is the main mechanism for enhancing the permeability of an unconventional reservoir. Moreover, the brittleness index (BI) is considered another critical parameter that controls the fracability of candidates. However, the fracability of candidates with respect to both shear dilation and BI have not been fully investigated. We performed a practical fracability evaluation by integrating the shear dilation mechanism and BI quantification. We obtained the mechanical parameters from mechanical tests conducted on synthetic tight sandstone samples, and we manufactured specimens with different friction coefficients and shear strengths. Next, we performed scaled hydraulic fracturing experiments on 15 identical 10 cm cubic samples using a true tri-axial stress cell, and the interaction mechanisms between HFs and NFs were investigated. We also evaluated the brittleness of each specimen based on a previous BI model and our own novel BI model. We found that a weak interface cohesion with an interaction (between HF and NF) angle of 60° exhibited a shear dilation (or reactivation) mechanism and a higher BI. We thus conclude that such conditions are more favourable for reservoir stimulation (i.e. hydraulic fracturing) in the field.
Keywords: brittleness index, hydraulic fracture, hydraulic fracturing, interaction mechanism, natural fracture, shear dilation.
Runhua Feng received his BSc degree of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tulsa in 2015. Feng finished his MSc degree of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University in 2017. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree at Curtin University, and his research interests mainly focus on petroleum-related geo-mechanics (i.e. hydraulic fracturing, microseismicity and finite element 3D reservoir geo-mechanics). Feng completed several presentations at the 52nd US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium. |
Ruijie Chen is a PhD student, majoring in Petroleum Geology, at Curtin University. Her research interests include geological evolution of salt related structures in extensional and constructional tectonics and reservoir characteristics. |
Mohammad Sarmadivaleh is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University (WA), and he leads the Petroleum Geo-mechanics Group. Mohammad received his PhD from Curtin University in numerical and experimental studies on hydraulic fracturing in 2012. Mohammad’s research interests include hydraulic fracturing, sanding, geo-mechanical reservoir modelling and CO2 sequestration studies. He currently supervises 13 higher degree research students and participates in academic and industrial research projects. |
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