Erdal Ozkan is a professor of petroleum engineering and co-director of Marathon Center of Excellence for Reservoir Studies at Colorado School of Mines. Previously, he was on the faculty at Istanbul Technical University. His research interests are horizontal well technology, pressure-transient analysis, modeling fluid flow in porous media and shale reservoirs.

Ozkan has authored or co-authored more than 100 technical papers, co-authored a book and contributed chapters to the Well Testing monograph and Reservoir Engineering Handbook of SPE. He has served as the executive Editor of SPEREE, chief editor of The Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, and the associate editor of JERT. He was involved in the organization of several SPE conferences, forums and workshops, including the recent meetings on shale reservoirs. Ozkan is a member of the SPE RD&D Advisory Committee and a Technical Director of the SPE Research and Development Technical Section. He is a Distinguished Member of the SPE and the recipient of the 2007 SPE Formation Evaluation Award. Ozkan holds BS and MS degrees from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, and a PhD degree from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, all in petroleum engineering.  

Erdal Ozkan, Colorado School of Mines

Releasing Shale-Gas Potential with Fractured Horizontal Wells

In the last decade, our understanding of shale reservoirs has progressed significantly. It is now agreed that a major factor for the productivity of shale reservoirs is the existence of a pervasive reservoir fracture network around the well. Accordingly, a common practice is to use hydraulically fractured horizontal wells to improve the connection with the reservoir fractures. Flow in these unconventional systems is considered linear in the fractured volume around the well and is usually interpreted with conventional reservoir engineering wisdom. The flaw in this interpretation is an inaccurate accounting of the matrix contribution due to the unconventional nature of flow in nano-darcy shale matrix.

This lecture presents a discussion of the characteristics of shale reservoirs and their impact on the performance of fractured horizontal wells. Various flow mechanisms in shale matrix and fluid transfer from matrix to fracture network are explained. Key parameters of productivity are identified and explained.  Emphasis is given to the estimation of the extent of reservoir fracture network, prediction of the efficiency of matrix drainage and their impact on the estimation of well's drainage volume. The main idea to take away from this lecture is that some conven-tional reservoir engineering interpretations and practices may not be adequate (or appropriate) for shale reservoirs. For example, hydraulic fracture conductivity is usually not a key para-meter for wells in shale reservoirs. Examples are presented to highlight practices/problems in the interpretation of well performance from fractured horizontal wells in shale reservoirs.