Abstract
The tight carbonate oil resources are abundant, normally characterized with low permeability, poor pore connectivity and large flow resistance through the production area. Proper stimulation treatments and an optimal design for the hydraulic fracture geometry is of great importance for economic production. Since natural fractures are developed in some parts of the reservoir, the effective fracture network and efficient conductivity of the natural fractures and micro fractures for the long term is critical to improve the oil recovery.
In this study, the hydraulic fracture geometry was optimized and the micro-proppant was incorporated for the long term fracture conductivity. A triple-porosity-permeability model was first established and three geometric models of hydraulic/acidizing fractures including multistage fractures, branch fractures and complex fracture network were proposed and compared in terms of daily and accumulative oil production. In addition, the influence of governing geomechanical and fracture parameters on the production performance and the ultimate oil recovery was analyze for the fractured horizontal well through numerical simulations. Moreover, the conductivity increase through the placement of micro-proppant in the micro and natural fractures and their effect on the long-term production improvement was investigated.
The results show that the effective communication between the natural and hydraulic fractures results in significant improvement in the production performance. Specifically, the daily oil production rate from the complex fracture network is as high as 1.5 times compared to that from the branch fractures. In addition, the production is positively correlated with the half-length of the hydraulic fracture and conductivity of both natural and hydraulic fractures, which increases gradually in the first half year and decreases considerably afterwards. However, there is an optimal value for each parameter in terms of the NPV.
This study improves the understanding of the uncertainties associated with hydraulic fracture geometry in the reservoir stimulation. The optimization of the fracture geometry and fracture parameters contribute to high production rates during the production build-up and the maximization of the long-term oil/gas recovery.
Copyright 2019, IFEDC Organizing Committee.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2019 International Field Exploration and Development Conference in Xi’an, China, 16–18 October, 2019.
This paper was selected for presentation by the IFEDC Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the IFEDC Technical Team and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the IFEDC Technical Committee its members. Papers presented at the Conference are subject to publication review by Professional Team of IFEDC Technical Committee. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent of IFEDC Organizing Committee is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of IFEDC. Contact email: paper@ifedc.org.
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Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51604286), Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2194084), Science Foundation of China University of Petroleum, Beijing (No. 2462016YJRC036), Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum, Beijing (No. PRP/indep-3-1707).
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Qu, Hy., Zhou, Fj., Zhong, Yc., Li, Z., Peng, Y., Pan, Zj. (2020). Optimization of the Multi-stage Hydraulic Fracture Geometry for the Tight Carbonate Reservoir. In: Lin, J. (eds) Proceedings of the International Field Exploration and Development Conference 2019. IFEDC 2019. Springer Series in Geomechanics and Geoengineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2485-1_59
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2485-1_59
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