Abstract:
Vast reserves of natural gas exist trapped in low permeability formations throughout the world. Due to the low viscosity of gas, reserves under certain conditions can be recovered from these low permeability formations where the economic recovery of conventional liquid hydrocarbons would not be possible. In order to allow economic production from gas wells in low permeability reservoirs, hydraulic fracturing is often necessary to increase gas recovery. The presence of non-Darcy flow significantly reduces the effective conductivity of the propped fracture, and hence adversely affects productivity of a hydraulically fractured gas well. This paper presents study, which is aimed at analysis of well test conducted on hydraulically fractured gas well. A simulation study was conducted to generate pressure-transient response for a hydraulically fractured gas well for the purpose of well test interpretation. The non-Darcy flow effects have been investigated as a function of fracture geometry. The resulting variation in transient pressure response eventually leads to changes in the well production capacity. The paper also includes the investigation of optimum fracture geometry for which non-Darcy flow effects are negligible thereby optimizing well performance.
Page(s):
263-280
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Proceedings SPE-PAPG Annual Technical Conference, Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2004