Abstract
Zipper fracturing has become one of the routine reservoir stimulation methods for developing unconventional resources such as shale oil and gas. A non-planar 3D fracture propagation model is used to study the fracture propagation behavior of zipper fracturing. The effects of stage time lag, staggered perforation cluster spacing, and horizontal principal stress contrast on the fracture geometry are analyzed through numerical simulation. The simulation results show that increasing the stage time lag can increase the fracture length and improve inter-well stimulation. For the formation with higher horizontal principal stress contrast, the staggered perforation cluster spacing has a minimum effect on the fracture configuration of zipper fracturing. For the formation with lower horizontal principal stress contrast, the fractures follow the curved paths and intersect with each other, which potentially has adverse effects on the stimulation of the subsequent stages.
Highlights
The development of hydraulic fracturing technology for unconventional petroleum resources has been a subject of considerable interest in recent years (Soliman et al, 2008; Li et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2019; Xie et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2021a; Zhang et al, 2021b)
We assume that the perforation cluster has an even spacing in the single horizontal well
We investigate the effects of the stage time lag, staggered perforation cluster spacing, and horizontal principal stress contrast on the behavior of zipper fracturing
Summary
The development of hydraulic fracturing technology for unconventional petroleum resources has been a subject of considerable interest in recent years (Soliman et al, 2008; Li et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2019; Xie et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2021a; Zhang et al, 2021b). Fractures are created sequentially stage by stage along the same wellbore Another fracturing sequence of MMF in a single horizontal well, referred to as “alternate fracturing,” was proposed to decrease fracture spacing and generate additional fracture complexity (Roussel and Sharma 2011). Rafiee et al (2012) estimated both tip-to-tip and staggered zipper in terms of the fracture geometry, stress interference, and production performance through an analysis of different predefined planar fractures. The results demonstrated that the staggered zipper fracturing improves the performance of fracturing treatment compared with the tip-to-tip zipper fracturing due to increased contact area. Manchanda et al (2014) studied the time-dependent stress interference behavior of induced unpropped fractures in both consecutive and zipper fracturing. The special feature of this model includes fracture closure in shutin and curved fracture intersection, which makes quantitative analysis of time-dependent fracture interference and intersection possible
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