Abstract
The production from shale gas reservoirs has significantly increased due to technological advancements. The shale gas reservoirs are very heterogeneous and the heterogeneity has a significant effect on the quality and productivity of reservoirs. Hence, it is essential to study the behavior of such reservoirs for accurate modelling and performance prediction. To evaluate the impact of fracture parameters on shale gas reservoir productivity using CMG (Computer Modelling Group) stars simulation software was the main objective of this study. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis considering an example shale gas reservoir was conducted for production performance analysis considering uniform and non-uniform fractures configurations. Several simulations were performed by considering the multi-stage hydraulically fractured reservoir. The sensitivities conducted includes the different cases of moderate and severe heterogeneity along with variable fractures half-length, effect of changing fracture spacing, variable fracture conductivities. The simulation results showed that by increasing conductivity of fracture increases the gas production rate significantly. Moreover, cases of reservoir permeability heterogeneity were analyzed which show the significant effect on gas rate and on cumulative gas production. The results of this study can be used to improve the effectiveness in designing and developing of shale gas reservoirs and also to improve the accuracy of analyzing heterogeneous shale gas reservoir performance.
Highlights
Unconventional oil and gas reservoirs have become increasingly important sources of energy in balancing the supply and demand gap for the world [1]
Fracture half-length is the main parameter that affects the productivity of low permeability shale gas reservoir due to their high conducive flow channels providing enough space for fluids to flow towards the wellbore
We attempted to analyze the impact of various parameters on the productivity of heterogeneous shale gas reservoirs leading to the following conclusions
Summary
Unconventional oil and gas reservoirs have become increasingly important sources of energy in balancing the supply and demand gap for the world [1]. Several different models have been suggested by the researchers for modelling of the fracture-matrix behavior in tight porous media [7,8,9] These numerical simulations performed consists of (i) EC (Equivalent Continuum Model) [10,11]; (ii) DPSP (Dual Porosity Model Single Permeability Model) [12,13] (iii) DPDP (Dual Porosity Dual Permeability Model) [13] (iv) MINC (Multiple Interaction Continua Model) [14]. For verification of the model accuracy prior to sensitivity analysis and long period production forecast, a model of shale gas reservoir numerical simulation model containing natural and hydraulic fractures was constructed and validated with field data in order to ensure the reliability of the results. Fracture parameters on shale gas production performance, the sensitivities run include the fracture half-length, fracture spacing and fracture conductivity
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