The Effect of Fluid Leakoff on Rock Failure Mechanisms During Frac-Pack Treatments

Abstract

Abstract Frac-pack treatments are commonly used on highly permeable and unconsolidated (hence, highly productive) formations as a means of preventing the occurrence of sanding while bypassing the damaged zone around the wellbore. These treatments are currently designed using hydraulic fracturing models that assume planar symmetrical geometries, tensile rock failure, and - usually - one-dimensional fluid leak-off schemes. However, it is not uncommon to find that the pressure predictions from these models and the ones measured in the field differ substantially. This paper addresses the issue of hydraulic fracturing stimulation treatments in poorly consolidated formations without the handicap of using such assumptions. In this study, the discrete element method (DEM) was used and the program was calibrated in order to reproduce the mechanical and hydraulic responses of a selected unconsolidated sandstone1. During this process, both its mechanical properties (Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, stress-strain curve, and compressive strength) as well as its hydraulic characteristics (permeability) were matched. The modeling effort presented here allows fracture propagation to be a direct consequence of the interaction of shear and tensile microcracks induced in the material during the injection process. Thus, à priori assumptions on the final geometry of the macro-scale fracture are not required. For the modeled rock, it was found that the nature of fluid leak-off as well as the pumping rate determine the fracture propagation process. The shape of the curves representing the number of induced cracks changed as a function of the fracturing fluid viscosity. The effect of pressure differential was also found to be important during the fracturing process.. A remarkable finding by exercising this model was that, in the particular case of the Antler Sandstone (and possibly for other unconsolidated formations), shear failure seems to be more important than tensile failure during the hydraulic fracturing process. The "normal" planar macro-scale fracture was deemed to be the consequence of microcracks interactions. In addition, a "process" zone was found to exist around the wellbore. This conclusion is in clear contradiction to what has been traditionally accepted in the oil and gas industry, and could explain the difference observed between standard model predictions and the conditions encountered in the field.