Abstract
Overgrowths of hydraulic fracture height occur in reservoirs without stress barriers. It may decrease the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing, pose harm to well production, and increase the possibility of groundwater pollution. Hence, fracture height containment methods are recommended to restrain the overgrowths of fracture height. To enhance the effect of artificial barrier technology, it is improved by replacing the sand or the ceramic used for bridging the fracture tips by gel particles. This innovative technology could be named “artificial gel-barrier technology”. Experiments show that the design of artificial gel-barrier technology is more convenient and controllable, since the dilatability and the gelling performance of the selected gels are mainly controlled by salinity. Experiments also show that the break-through pressure of the gel-barrier is much larger than that of the classical barrier. Numerical simulations reveal that the artificial gel-barrier technology is more helpful and efficient than classical barrier technology. This improved technology has been applied to fracturing operations in Tahe oilfield of China; 73% of these operations were more efficient and the performances of these wells were better than those of adjacent wells.
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