SPE Production & Operations
Volume 26, Number 4, November 2011, pp. 388-400

SPE-142479-PA

Damage Mechanisms in Unconventional-Gas-Well Stimulation--A New Look at an Old Problem

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DOI  More information 10.2118/142479-PA http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/142479-PA

Citation

  • Shaoul, J., van Zelm, L., and de Pater, C.J. 2011. Damage Mechanisms in Unconventional-Gas-Well Stimulation--A New Look at an Old Problem. SPE Prod & Oper 26 (4): 388-400. SPE-142479-PA. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/142479-PA.

Discipline Categories

  • 5.3.3 Hydraulic Fracturing and Gravel Packing
  • 6.5 Reservoir Simulation
  • 6.6 Reservoir Monitoring/Formation Evaluation

Keywords

  • rel-perm jail, tight-gas, unconventional gas, fracture performance evaluation

Summary

After fracture stimulation, production often rises slowly instead of showing an early transient. This indicates either severe reduction in fracture conductivity or reservoir damage. There is still no agreement in the industry about the most important damage mechanisms. Work performed by Pratts and Holditch in the 1970s showed that fracture-face damage from filtrate invasion is unimportant unless there is permeability damage in the invaded zone of at least 99%. New ideas have been proposed that may better explain the behavior commonly seen in actual production data. These ideas include relative permeability with water and gas both immobile at a given saturation ("permeability jail"), small-scale reservoir heterogeneity, and stress-sensitive-matrix permeability at high drawdown.

Experience from the field has been contradictory. Sometimes no water is produced back, but gas production does not appear to suffer. In other cases, the gas rate is significantly lower than expected, but significant fracture fluid is recovered. With the inherent coupling of fracture length and permeability in well-test interpretation and the practical impossibility of achieving radial flow in tight-gas reservoirs with large fracture lengths, it has been difficult to prove any theory about the cause of poor performance from tight gas fracture treatments. This paper shows simulation results of these effects on post-fracture production from an unconventional (0.001-md) gas well. Furthermore, realistic assumptions about proppant-pack cleanup show a connection not only between poor cleanup and short effective fracture length, but also reduction in contacted kh and connected reservoir volume. New reservoir-simulation results are presented that show a 50% reduction of production in the first years because of these effects in unconventional reservoirs.

© 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers

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History

  • Original manuscript received: 15 December 2010
  • Meeting paper published: 1 February 2011
  • Revised manuscript received: 14 December 2010
  • Manuscript approved: 14 May 2011
  • Published online: 13 September 2011
  • Version of record: 22 November 2011