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Investigation of shale imbibition capability and the influencing factors based on a convenient method

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Abstract

A shale gas reservoir is commonly characterized by nano-scale pores and throats, high clay contents, and strong heterogeneity in permeability and porosity. Such tight structure can prevent a large proportion of fracturing fluid from flowing back after the hydraulic fracturing operations. It remains challenging to quantitatively analyze the water imbibition capability of shale as the rock sample size and shape are not unified when water imbibition behavior is experimentally investigated. In this study, a new method is proposed to evaluate the water imbibition capability of shale using the ratio of the imbibition area to the mass of the rock sample to normalize the size and shape of the sample. More specifically, the experimental shale samples were collected from three different shale gas reservoirs (Sichuan Changning Block, Yunnan Zhaotong Block, Chongqing Pengshui Block) to verify the proposed method and evaluate the influencing factors of shale imbibition capability. Imbibition experiments were then conducted to analyze the influence of four factors, including matrix porosity, fracture size, clay, and rock sample size, on the water imbibition capability of shale. The results show that the proposed method can characterize the maximum imbibition capability and imbibition rate and avoid errors in the measured porosity. In addition, the rank of factors affecting the imbibition capability was found to be fracture size, porosity, clay content, and sample size.

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Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42272176) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M722636).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

    Ying Li, Maomao Li & Haitao Li

  2. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Shengnan Chen

  3. School of Foreign Languages, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, China

    Shu Long

Authors
  1. Ying Li
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  2. Maomao Li
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  3. Haitao Li
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  4. Shengnan Chen
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  5. Shu Long
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study concept and design. Experimental material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Ying Li, Maomao Li, Haitao Li, and Shengnan Chen. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ying Li, text checking and proofreading were performed by Shu Long, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ying Li or Shengnan Chen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible Editor: Santanu Banerjee

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Li, Y., Li, M., Li, H. et al. Investigation of shale imbibition capability and the influencing factors based on a convenient method. Arab J Geosci 16, 65 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-11137-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-11137-8

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